Proverbs 6:1-17 ▼

1 My child, if you have made a pledge for your neighbor, and have become a guarantor for a stranger,

2 if you have been ensnared by the words you have uttered, and have been caught by the words you have spoken,

3 then, my child, do this in order to deliver yourself, because you have fallen into your neighbor's power: go, humble yourself, and appeal firmly to your neighbor.

4 Permit no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.

5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare, and like a bird from the trap of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; observe its ways and be wise!

7 It has no commander, overseer, or ruler,

8 yet it prepares its food in the summer; it gathers at the harvest what it will eat.

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

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

11 and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man.

12 A worthless and wicked person walks around saying perverse things;

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

14 he plots evil with perverse thoughts in his heart, he spreads contention at all times.

15 Therefore, his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.

16 There are six things that the LORD hates, even seven things that are an abomination to him:

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,