BDJ
Español
English
Proverbs 6
On surety rashly offered
1 My son, if you have gone surety for your neighbour, if you have guaranteed the bond of a stranger,
2 if you have committed yourself with your own lips, if through words of yours you have been entrapped,
3 do this, my son, to extricate yourself-since you have put yourself in the power of your neighbour: go, go quickly, and plead with your neighbour,
4 give your eyes no sleep, your eyelids no rest,
5 break free like a gazelle from the trap, like a bird from the snare.
The idler and the ant
6 Idler, go to the ant; ponder her ways and grow wise:
7 no one gives her orders, no overseer, no master,
8 yet all through the summer she makes sure of her food, and gathers her supplies at harvest time.
9 How long do you intend to lie there, idler? When are you going to rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little drowsiness, a little folding of the arms to take life easier,
11 and like a vagrant, poverty is at your elbow and, like a beggar, want.
Portrait of a scoundrel
12 A scoundrel, a vicious man, he goes with a leer on his lips,
13 winking his eye, shuffling his foot, beckoning with his finger.
14 Deceit in his heart, always scheming evil, he sows dissension.
15 Disaster will overtake him sharply for this, suddenly, irretrievably, his fall will come.
Seven things hateful to God
16 There are six things that Yahweh hates, seven that his soul abhors:
17 a haughty look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that weaves wicked plots, feet that hurry to do evil,
19 a false witness who lies with every breath,[*a] man who sows dissension among brothers.
More fatherly advice
20 Keep your father’s principle, my son, do not spurn your mother’s teaching.
21 Bind them ever to your heart, tie them round your neck.
22 When you walk, these will guide you, when you lie down, watch over you, when you wake, talk with you.
23 For this principle is a lamp, this teaching is a light; correction and discipline are the way to life,
24 preserving you from the woman subject to a husband, from the smooth tongue of the woman who is a stranger.
25 Do not covet her beauty in your heart or let her captivate you with the play of her eyes;
26 a harlot can be bought for a hunk of bread, but the adulteress is aiming to catch a precious life.
27 Can a man hug fire to his breast without setting his clothes alight?
28 Can a man walk on red-hot coals without burning his feet?
29 So it is the man who consorts with his neighbour’s wife: no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30 Men attach small blame to the thief who in hunger steals to fill his belly;
31 though, once caught, he must pay back sevenfold, and has to hand over all his family resources.
32 But the adulterer has no sense; act like him, and court your own destruction.
33 All he gets is blows and insults, and disgrace that will not be blotted out.
34 For jealousy inflames the husband who will show no mercy when the day comes for revenge,
35 he will not consider any compensation, lavish what gifts you may, he will not be placated.