The Mind of God Sundays: Proverbs 6

Proverbs 6 (English Standard Version)

¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
have given your pledge for a stranger,
²if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words of your mouth,
³then do this, my son, and save yourself,
for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.
⁴Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
⁷Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
⁸she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
⁹How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man,
goes about with crooked speech,
¹³winks with his eyes, signals with his feet,
points with his finger,
¹⁴with perverted heart devises evil,
continually sowing discord;
¹⁵therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

¹⁶There are six things that the LORD hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
¹⁹a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
²¹Bind them on your heart always;
tie them around your neck.
²²When you walk, they will lead you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
and when you awake, they will talk with you.
²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
²⁴to preserve you from the evil woman,
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
²⁶for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread,
but a married woman hunts down a precious life.
²⁷Can a man carry fire next to his chest
and his clothes not be burned?
²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?
²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
none who touches her will go unpunished.
³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,
³¹but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;
he will give all the goods of his house.
³²He who commits adultery lacks sense;
he who does it destroys himself.
³³He will get wounds and dishonor,
and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
³⁴For jealousy makes a man furious,
and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
³⁵He will accept no compensation;
he will refuse though you multiply gifts.