Chapter
6
My daughter, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;
You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.
Do this now, my daughter, and deliver yourself, seeing you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.
Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.
Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider his ways, and be wise;
which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
provides his bread in the summer, and gathers his food in the harvest.
How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed woman.
A worthless person, a woman of iniquity, is she who walks with a perverse mouth;
who winks with her eyes, who signals with her feet, who motions with her fingers;
in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.
Therefore her calamity will come suddenly. She will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.
There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to her:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood;
a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,
a false witness who utters lies, and she who sows discord among sisters.
My daughter, keep your mother's commandment, and don't forsake your father's teaching.
Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.
When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.
For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
to keep you from the immoral man, from the flattery of the wayward husband's tongue.
Don't lust after his beauty in your heart, neither let him captivate you with his eyelids.
For a philanderer reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulterer hunts for your precious life.
Can a woman scoop fire into her lap, and her clothes not be burned?
Or can one walk on hot coals, and her feet not be scorched?
So is she who goes in to her neighbor's husband. Whoever touches him will not be unpunished.
Women don't despise a thief, if she steals to satisfy herself when she is hungry:
but if she is found, she shall restore seven times. She shall give all the wealth of her house.
She who commits adultery with a man is void of understanding. She who does it destroys her own soul.
She will get wounds and dishonor. Her reproach will not be wiped away.
For jealousy arouses the fury of the wife. She won't spare in the day of vengeance.
She won't regard any ransom, neither will she rest content, though you give many gifts.