Proverbs 6 - Modern English Version

Practical Wisdom

¹ My son, if you put up a security for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,

² you are snared by the words of your mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth.

³ Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself; since you have come into the hand of your friend, go and humble yourself, and plead with your friend.

⁴ Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.

⁵ Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and like 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 guide, overseer, or ruler,

⁸ provides her food in the summer and gathers her sustenance in the harvest.

⁹ How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?

¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep,

¹¹ so shall your poverty come upon you like a thief, and your want like an armed man.

¹² A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth.

¹³ He winks with his eyes, he signals with his feet, he points with his fingers;

¹⁴ perverseness is in his heart, he devises evil continually, he sows discord.

¹⁵ Therefore his calamity will come suddenly; suddenly he will be broken without remedy.

¹⁶ There are six things that the Lord hates, seven are an abomination to Him:

¹⁷ a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil,

¹⁹ a false witness who speaks lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

²¹ Bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck.

²² When you walk, they will lead you; when you sleep, they will keep you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.

²³ For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴ to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of an adulteress.

²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart or let her take you with her eyes;

²⁶ for the price of a prostitute leaves a man with a loaf of bread, and an adulteress preys upon his precious life.

²⁷ Can a man carry fire next to his bosom without burning his clothes?

²⁸ Can one walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

²⁹ So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; whoever touches her will not be innocent.

³⁰ Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry.

³¹ Yet if he is found, he must repay sevenfold; he must forfeit all the substance of his house.

³² But he who commits adultery lacks understanding; he who does it destroys his own soul.

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

³⁴ For jealousy enrages a man, and he will not spare on the day of vengeance.

³⁵ He will accept no compensation; he will not rest content though you offer many gifts.