Warnings against foolishness and laziness
6
📚My son,if you act as security for your friend,
if you have struck your hand
in pledge with that of a stranger,
2 📚You are ensnared by the words
of your mouth,
you are captured by the words
of your mouth.
3 📚Do this now, my son,
and rescue yourself,
when you have come into your friends hands:
go, humble yourself,
and plead with your friend.
4 📚Do not give sleep to your eyes,
or slumber to your eyelids.
5 📚Rescue yourself like a roe from the hand
of the hunter, and like a bird
from the hand of the fowler.
6:1-5 This refers to taking the responsibility of paying someone else’s debts if he should fail to do so, or any other obligation of a similar nature. The wise man says this is a foolish thing to do (Prov 17:18), and could result in complete poverty (Prov 11:15; 22:26-27), and bondage. Striking hands was a sign of agreement.⚜
6 📚Go to the ant, you lazy one.
Consider its ways, and be wise.
7 📚It has no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8 📚But arranges for its provisions
in the summer,
and gathers its food in the harvest.
9 📚How long will you sleep, O lazy one?
When will you arise from your sleep?
10 📚Yet a little sleep,
a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep,
11 📚So your poverty will come like a traveller,
and your scarcity like an armed man.
12 📚A worthless person, a wicked man,
walks about with a perverse mouth.
13 📚He winks with his eyes,
he speaks with his feet,
he teaches with his fingers.
14 📚Perversity is in his heart.
He plots evil continually. He sows discord.
15 📚Therefore his calamity will come suddenly.
Suddenly he will be broken without remedy.
6:12-15 This particular kind of scoundrel tries to destroy others by hypocrisy, deceitfulness and plots. His end will be in accordance with perfect justice. Note at Ps 18:25-26.⚜
Seven things God hates
16 📚These six things the LORD hates,
yes, seven are an abomination to him:
17 📚A proud 📖 look, a lying 📖 tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood 📖,
18 📚A heart 📖 that devises wicked schemes,
feet 📖 that are swift in running to evil,
19 📚A false witness who speaks lies 📖,
and he who sows discord 📖 among brethren.
6:16-19 Let us write these words on our hearts and read them there daily. It is a terrible folly to practice what is detestable to God, or to love what He hates.⚜
More exhortations to avoid sexual immorality
20 📚My son, keep your father’s command,
and do not forsake the law of your mother.
21 📚Bind them continually on your heart,
and tie them about your neck.
22 📚When you go about, it will lead you.
When you sleep, it will keep you,
and when you wake up,
it will talk with you.
23 📚For the command is a lamp,
and the law is light,
and the rebukes of instruction are
the way of life,
24 📚To keep you from the evil woman,
from the flattery of the tongue
of a strange woman.
25 📚Do not lust 📖 in your heart for her beauty,
nor let her take you with her eyelids.
26 📚For through a prostitute a man is brought
to a piece of bread,
and the adulteress will hunt
for the precious life.
27 📚Can a man take fire to his chest,
and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can one go on hot coals,
and his feet not be burned?
29 📚So is he who goes in
to his neighbor’s wife.
Whoever touches her will not be free
from punishment.
30 People do not despise a thief,
if he steals to satisfy his soul
when he is hungry;
31 📚But if he is found out,
he must restore sevenfold,
even though he must give
all the resources of his house.
32 📚But whoever commits adultery
with a woman lacks understanding.
He who does it destroys his own soul.
6:32 Prov 7:7; 9:4, 16; 1 Cor 6:18. An adulterer breaks the law of God, rushes into danger of disgrace and punishment by both man and God, and sins against his own body, all for a brief passing pleasure. Is he not a fool?⚜
33 📚A wound and dishonour is what
he will get,
and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
34 📚For jealousy is the rage of a man;
therefore he will not spare in the day
of vengeance.
35 📚He will not show regard
for any compensation,
nor will he rest content,
though you give many gifts.
6:24-35 See Prov 5:9-21.⚜