3.2 KiB
Lessons for Daily Life
Chapter 6
- My child, if you have put up security for a friend's debt
or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger--
- if you have trapped yourself by your agreement
and are caught by what you said--
- follow my advice and save yourself,
for you have placed yourself at your friend's mercy.
Now swallow your pride;
go and beg to have your name erased.
- Don't put it off; do it now!
Don't rest until you do.
- Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter,
like a bird fleeing from a net.
- Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones.
Learn from their ways and become wise!
- Though they have no prince
or governor or ruler to make them work,
- they labor hard all summer,
gathering food for the winter.
- But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep?
When will you wake up?
- A little extra sleep, a little more slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest--
- then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit;
scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.
- What are worthless and wicked people like?
They are constant liars,
- signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye,
a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers.
- Their perverted hearts plot evil,
and they constantly stir up trouble.
- But they will be destroyed suddenly,
broken in an instant beyond all hope of healing.
- There are six things the LORD hates--
no, seven things he detests:
- haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that kill the innocent,
- a heart that plots evil,
feet that race to do wrong,
- a false witness who pours out lies,
a person who sows discord in a family.
- My son, obey your father's commands,
and don't neglect your mother's instruction.
- Keep their words always in your heart.
Tie them around your neck.
- When you walk, their counsel will lead you.
When you sleep, they will protect you.
When you wake up, they will advise you.
- For their command is a lamp
and their instruction a light; their corrective discipline
is the way to life.
- It will keep you from the immoral woman,
from the smooth tongue of a promiscuous woman.
- Don't lust for her beauty.
Don't let her coy glances seduce you.
- For a prostitute will bring you to poverty,
but sleeping with another man's wife will cost you your life.
- Can a man scoop a flame into his lap
and not have his clothes catch on fire?
- Can he walk on hot coals
and not blister his feet?
- So it is with the man who sleeps with another man's wife.
He who embraces her will not go unpunished.
- Excuses might be found for a thief
who steals because he is starving.
- But if he is caught, he must pay back seven times what he stole,
even if he has to sell everything in his house.
- But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool,
for he destroys himself.
- He will be wounded and disgraced.
His shame will never be erased.
- For the woman's jealous husband will be furious,
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
- He will accept no compensation,
nor be satisfied with a payoff of any size.