1 My son, if you have become surety for your fellow man, If you have stricken your hands for a stranger;

2 You are snared with the words of your mouth, You are taken with the words of your mouth.

3 Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, Seeing you have come into the hand of your fellow man: Go, humble yourself, and importune your fellow man;

4 Don't give sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids;

5 Deliver yourself as a roe from the hand [of the hunter], And as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; Consider her ways, and be wise:

7 Which having no chief, Overseer, or ruler,

8 Provides her bread in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest.

9 How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

10 [Yet] a little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep:

11 So will your poverty come as a robber, And your want as an armed man.

12 [A] worthless man, a man of iniquity, Is he who walks with a perverse mouth;

13 That winks with his eyes, that speaks with his feet, That makes signs with his fingers;

14 In whose heart is perverseness, Who devises evil continually, Who sows discord.

15 Therefore will his calamity come suddenly; All of a sudden he will be broken, and that without remedy.

16 There are six things which Yahweh hates; Yes, seven which are disgusting to him:

17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood;

18 A heart that devises wicked purposes, Feet that are swift in running to mischief,

19 A false witness that utters lies, And he who sows discord among brothers.

20 My son, keep the commandment of your father, And don't forsake the law of your mother:

21 Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them about your neck.

22 When you walk, it will lead you; When you sleep, it will watch over you; And when you awake, it will talk with you.

23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is a light; And reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

24 To keep you from the evil woman, From the flattery of the foreigner's tongue.

25 Don't lust after her beauty in your heart; Neither let her take you with her eyelids.

26 For on account of a prostitute [a man is brought] to a piece of bread; And the adulteress hunts for the precious life.

27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?

28 Or can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be scorched?

29 So he who goes in to his fellow man's wife; Whoever has any sex with her will not be unpunished.

30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steals To satisfy himself when he is hungry:

31 But if he is found, he will restore sevenfold; He will give all the substance of his house.

32 He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding: He who does it destroys his own soul.

33 Wounds and dishonor he will get; And his reproach will not be wiped away.

34 For jealousy is the rage of a [noble] man; And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

35 He will not regard any ransom; Neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.