LEB PROV Chapter 6

Against Pledges

• if you have bound yourself[fn] to the stranger,
• 2 if you are snared by the sayings of your mouth, if you are caught by the sayings of your mouth,
• 3 do this, then, my child, and save yourself, for you have come into the palm of your neighbor’s hand :[fn]
• Go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbor.
• 4 Do not give sleep to your eyes, or slumber to your eyelids.
• 5 Save yourself like a gazelle from a hand, or like a bird from the hand of a fowler.

Against Sloth

• 6 Go to the ant, lazy! Consider its ways and be wise.
• 7 It has no chief, officer, or ruler.
• 8 In the summer, it prepares its food; in the harvest, it gathers its sustenance.
• 9 How long will you lie down, lazy? When will you rise up from your sleep?
• 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands for rest—
• 11 like a robber[fn] shall your poverty come, and what you lack like an armed man.

Against Worthlessness

• 12 A worthless man, an evil man, goes around with deceitful speech .[fn]
• 13 Winking in his eye, shuffling in his foot, pointing in his fingers,
• 14 perversion in his heart, he devises evil; at all times he will send out discord.[fn]
• 15 Upon such a man ,[fn] suddenly shall his calamity come; in a moment he will be damaged and there is no healing.[fn]

What Yahweh Hates

• 16 There are six things Yahweh hates, and seven things are abominations of his soul:[fn]
• 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
• 18 a devising heart, plans of deception, feet that hurry to run to evil,[fn]
• 19 a false witness who breathes lies and sends out discord[fn] between brothers.

Commandment and Instruction as Guardians

• 20 My child, keep the commandment of your father, and do not disregard the instruction of your mother.
• 21 Bind them on your heart continually; tie them upon your neck.
• 22 When you walk ,[fn] she[fn] will lead you, When you lie down ,[fn] she will watch over you,
• and when you awake, she will converse with you.
• 23 For like a lamp is a commandment, and instruction is light, and the way of life[fn] is the reproof of discipline,
• 24 in order to preserve you from an evil woman,[fn] from the smoothness of the tongue of a an adulteress .[fn]
• 25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart; may she not capture you with her eyelashes.
• 26 For the price of a woman, a prostitute,[fn] is the price of a loaf of bread, but the woman belonging to a man[fn] hunts precious life.

Warning Against Relations with a Married Woman

• 27 Can a man carry fire in his lap, and his clothes not burn?
• 28 If a man walks upon the hot coals, will his feet not be burned?
• 29 Thus, he who goes to the wife of his neighbor, any who touches her shall not go unpunished.
• 30 People do not despise a thief when he steals to fill himself[fn] when he is hungry.
• 31 But if he is found, he will pay sevenfold, every possession of his house he shall give.
• 32 He who commits adultery with a woman lacks sense ,[fn] he destroys himself[fn] who does it.
• 33 A wound and dishonor he will find, and his disgrace will not be wiped out.
• 34 For jealousy is the fury of a husband, and he will not show restraint on the day of revenge.
• 35 He will not accept any compensation ,[fn] and he will not be willing, though the bribe is large.