PROVERBIALLY SPEAKING - PROVERBS 6

Proverbs 6 (JTM)




1My son, if you are surety for your friend,

if you have stricken your hand with a stranger,



2You are snared with the words of your mouth,

you are taken with the words of your mouth.



3Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself,

when you are come into the hand of your friend;

go, humble yourself, and make sure your friend.



4Give not sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.



5Deliver yourself as a roe from the hand of the hunter,

and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.



6Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:



7Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,



8Provideth her meat in the summer,

and gathers her food in the harvest.



9How long will you sleep, O sluggard?

when will you arise out of your sleep?



10Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to sleep:



11So shall your poverty come as one that travels,

and your want as an armed man.



12A naughty person,

a wicked man, walks with a froward mouth.



13He winks with his eyes,

he speaks with his feet,

he teaches with his fingers;



14Frowardness is in his heart,

he devises mischief continually;

he sows discord.



15Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly;

suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.



16These six things doth the LORD hate:

yea, seven are an abomination unto him:



(1) A proud look,

(2) A lying tongue,

(3) Hands that shed innocent blood

(4) An heart that devises wicked imaginations

(5) Feet that be swift in running to mischief

(6) A false witness that speaks lies

(7) He that sows discord among brethren.



20My son, keep thy father’s commandment,

and forsake not the law of your mother:



21Bind them continually upon your heart,

and tie them about your neck.



22When you go, it shall lead you;

when you sleep, it shall keep you;

and when you awake, it shall talk with you.



23For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light;

and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:



24To keep you from the evil woman,

from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.



25Lust not after her beauty in your heart;

neither let her take you with her eyelids.

26For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread:

and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.



27Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?



28Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?



29So he that goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

whosoever touches her shall not be innocent.



30Men do not despise a thief,

if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;



31But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold;

he shall give all the substance of his house.



32But whoso commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding:

he that doeth it destroys his own soul.



33A wound and dishonor shall he get;

and his reproach shall not be wiped away.



34For jealousy is the rage of a man:

therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.



35He will not regard any ransom;

neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.