Proverbs 6
1 My son, if someone has borrowed money from a friend or a stranger, and if you have promised that you will pay the money back if that person is unable to pay back the money he borrowed,
[My] son, if you become surety for your friend, you shall deliver your hand to an enemy.
2 you may be trapped by what you have agreed to do, [because if the one who borrowed the money is not able to pay it back, you will have to pay it]. What you have said that you will do will be like a snare to you.
For a man's own lips become a strong snare to him, and he is caught with the lips of his own mouth.
3 So, my son, I will tell you what you should do to escape from your difficulty, so that the moneylender does not get control over your [wealth: ] Humbly go to your friend and plead with him [to cancel the agreement]!
[My] son, do what I command you, and deliver yourself; for on your friend's account you are come into the power of evil [men]: faint not, but stir up even your friend for whom you are become surety.
4 Do not wait until tomorrow; [go immediately]! Do not rest until you [go and talk with him].
Give not sleep to your eyes, nor slumber with your eyelids;
5 Save yourself, like a deer that escapes from a deer hunter [or] like a bird that flees from a bird hunter.
that you may deliver yourself as a doe out of the toils, and as a bird out of a snare.
6 You lazy individual, learn something from [watching] the ants. Become wise from observing what they do.
Go to the ant, O sluggard; and see, and emulate his ways, and become wiser than he.
7 They do not have a king or a governor or any [other] person who rules them [and forces them to work],
For whereas he has no husbandry, nor any one to compel him, and is under no master,
8 [but] they work hard [all] during the summer, gathering and storing food to eat during the winter.
he prepares food for himself in the summer, and lays by abundant store in harvest. Or go to the bee, and learn how diligent she is, and how earnestly she is engaged in her work; whose labors kings and private men use for health, and she is desired and respected by all: though weak in body, she is advanced by honouring wisdom.
9 [But], you lazy loafer, how long will you [continue to] sleep [RHQ]? Are you never going to get up from sleeping [and go to work]?
How long will you lie, O sluggard? and when will you awake out of sleep?
10 You sleep a for a little time; [you say, “I will take] just a short nap.” You lie down and fold/lay your hands [across your chest] and rest;
You sleep a little, and you rest a little, and you slumber a short [time], and you fold your arms over your breast a little.
11 and suddenly you will become poor. It will be as though a bandit suddenly comes and takes all that you have.
Then poverty comes upon you as an evil traveller, and lack as a swift courier: but if you be diligent, your harvest shall arrive as a fountain, and poverty shall flee away as a bad courier.
12 [I will describe for you what] worthless and evil people [are like]. They constantly lie;
A foolish man and a transgressor goes in ways that are not good.
13 by winking their eyes and moving their feet and making signs with their fingers, they signal [to their friends what they are intending/planning to do].
And the same winks with the eye, and makes a sign with his foot, and teaches with the beckonings of his fingers.
14 They plan to do evil things. They constantly cause strife/trouble.
[His] perverse heart devises evils: at all times such a one causes troubles to a city.
15 But disasters will hit them suddenly; they will be crushed/ruined and nothing will be able to heal them.
Therefore his destruction shall come suddenly; overthrow and irretrievable ruin.
16 There are six, [maybe] seven, kinds of people that Yahweh hates. [They are]:
For he rejoices in all things which God hates, and he is ruined by reason of impurity of soul.
17 People who show by their eyes that they are very proud; people who lie [MTY]; people [SYN] who kill others [SYN] who have done nothing wrong;
The eye of the haughty, a tongue unjust, hands shedding the blood of the just;
18 people who plan to do evil deeds; people [SYN] who run quickly to do wrong things;
and a heart devising evil thoughts, and feet hastening to do evil, —[are hateful to God].
19 people who easily tell lies in court; and people who cause strife between family members.
An unjust witness kindles falsehoods, and brings on quarrels between brethren.
20 My son, obey my commands, and do not ignore what your mother has taught you.
[My] son, keep the laws of your father, and reject not the ordinances of your mother:
21 Remember the things that we have said. Those things should be [like a beautiful necklace] around your neck.
but bind them upon your soul continually, and hang them as a chain about your neck.
22 [If you follow our advice, it will be as though] what we have taught you [PRS] will lead you, wherever you go. When you sleep, they will protect you. And when you wake up in the morning, they will teach/instruct you.
Whenever you walk, lead this along and let it be with you; that it may talk with you when you wake.
23 These commands and what we teach you [will be like] a lamp to light your path [MET]. When we rebuke you and correct/punish you, we will be showing you the road to having [a good] life.
For the commandment of the law is a lamp and a light; a way of life; reproof also and correction:
24 Heeding [PRS] these commands and things that we have taught you will enable you to keep away from immoral women and from [listening to] the enticing words of an adulterous woman.
to keep you continually from a married woman, and from the calumny of a strange tongue.
25 [Even] if such a woman is beautiful and has lovely eyes, do not desire to go with her. Do not let her persuade you to go with her (with her eyes/by the way she looks at you).
Let not the desire of beauty overcome you, neither be you caught by your eyes, neither be captivated with her eyelids.
26 [Do not forget that] you can hire a prostitute for only a loaf of bread, but [if you sleep with] another man’s wife, (it may cost you/you may lose) your life.
For the value of a harlot is as much as of one loaf; and a woman hunts for the precious souls of men.
27 Can you carry hot coals in your pocket and not be burned [RHQ]?
Shall any one bind fire in his bosom, and not burn his garments?
28 Can you walk on burning coals and not scorch/burn your feet?
or will any one walk on coals of fire, and not burn his feet?
29 [No]! And in the same way, anyone who (sleeps with/has sex with) another man’s wife will [suffer for doing that]. [He will certainly] [LIT] be punished severely.
So is he that goes in to a married woman; he shall not be held guiltless, neither any one that touches her.
30 We do not despise a thief if he steals some food because he is very hungry.
It is not to be wondered at if one should be taken stealing, for he steals that when hungry he may satisfy his soul:
31 But [if he steals something and then] is caught [by the police], he will have to pay back (seven times as much as/much more than) he stole. He may need to sell everything that is in his house [to get enough money to pay it back].
but if he should be taken, he shall repay sevenfold, and shall deliver himself by giving all his goods.
32 [But] a man who commits adultery with some woman is very foolish, [because] he is destroying his own self/soul [by what he is doing].
But the adulterer through lack of sense procures destruction to his soul.
33 [That woman’s husband] will wound him badly, and [other people] will despise him. His shame will never end.
He endures both pain and disgrace, and his reproach shall never be wiped off.
34 Because that woman’s husband will (be jealous/not want anyone else to sleep with her), he will become furious, and when he gets revenge, he will not act mercifully [toward the man who slept with his wife].
For the soul of her husband is full of jealousy: he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35 And he will not accept any bribe/money, even if it is a big bribe, to (appease him/cause him to stop being angry).
He will not forego [his] enmity for any ransom: neither will he be reconciled for many gifts.
