Proverbs 6

Go to the Ant, You Sluggard

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6:1Son, if you guarantee your friend,
you will give your hand over to an enemy.

6:2For a man’s own lips are a strong trap,
and he is caught by the lips of his own mouth.

6:3Son, do what I command you and save yourself—
for through your friend you have come into evil men’s hands.
Go without growing slack,
and press the friend you guaranteed.

6:4Give no sleep to your eyes,
nor doze with your eyelids,

6:5so that you may save yourself like a gazelle from snares
and like a bird from a trap.

6:6Go to the ant, sluggard;
see its ways and emulate them,
and become wiser than it.

6:7For although it has no cultivated field,
and has no one forcing it,
and is under no master,

6:8it prepares its food in summer
and makes abundant provision at harvest.

6:8aOr go to the bee
and learn how industrious she is,
and how nobly she performs her work,

6:8bwhose labors kings and private people use for health;
she is desired by everyone and held in esteem.

6:8cAlthough weak in bodily strength,
she was advanced because she honored wisdom.

6:9How long do you lie down, sluggard?
When will you rise from sleep?

6:10You sleep a little, sit a little, doze a little,
and clasp your chest with your hands a little;

6:11then poverty arrives beside you like an evil traveler,
and want like a good runner.

6:11aBut if you are diligent, your harvest will come like a spring,
and want will desert you like a bad runner.

6:12A foolish and lawless man travels ways that are not good;

6:13the same man signals with his eye and gives signs with his foot,
and instructs by gestures of his fingers;

6:14with a twisted heart he devises evils at every time.
Such a person stirs up disturbances for a city.

6:15Therefore his destruction comes suddenly:
a cutting down and an incurable crushing,

6:16because he rejoices in everything the Lord hates,
and is crushed because of his soul’s uncleanness:

6:17an insolent person’s eye, an unjust tongue,
hands shedding a righteous person’s blood,

6:18and a heart devising evil thoughts,
and feet hastening to do harm;

6:19an unjust witness kindles falsehoods
and sends disputes among brothers.

6:20Son, guard your father’s laws,
and do not reject your mother’s ordinances.

6:21Fasten them always upon your soul,
and collar them around your neck.

6:22Whenever you walk, take her along and let her be with you;
when you sleep, let her guard you,
so that when you rise she may converse with you,

6:23because the commandment of law is a lamp and a light,
and correction and discipline are life’s way,

6:24to preserve you from a married woman
and from an alien tongue’s slander.

6:25Do not let desire for beauty overcome you;
do not be hunted by your own eyes,
nor seized by her eyelids.

6:26For a prostitute’s price is as much as one loaf,
but a woman hunts men’s precious lives.

6:27Will someone bind fire in his bosom
without burning his garments?

6:28Or will someone walk on fiery coals
without burning his feet?

6:29So is the one who goes in to a married woman:
he will not be acquitted, nor will anyone touching her.

6:30It is no wonder if someone is caught stealing,
for he steals to fill his appetite when hungry.

6:31But if caught, he will repay sevenfold,
and by giving all his possessions he will rescue himself.

6:32But the adulterer, through lack of sense,
brings destruction upon his own life;

6:33he bears pains and dishonors,
and his reproach will never be wiped away.

6:34For her husband’s anger is full of jealousy;
he will not spare on the day of judgment,

6:35he will not trade his enmity for any ransom,
nor be reconciled by many gifts.

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.