Proverbs 6:5-34

⁵Get out of it like a gazelle escaping from a trap, like a bird from a bird-catcher's net.

⁶Go and observe the ants, you slacker! Learn from what they do and become wise.

⁷They don't have a leader, an officer, or a ruler,

⁸yet they work hard during the summer getting their food, gathering what they need during the harvest.

⁹So how long are you going to lie there, you slacker? When are you going to get up from your sleep?

¹⁰You may say, “Please, just a little more sleep, a little longer snooze, a little more folding of the arms to rest”—

¹¹and poverty will attack you like a robber, destitution like an armed warrior.

¹²Rebellious and wicked people go around telling lies,

¹³winking slyly, giving sneaky foot gestures, rudely pointing with their fingers.

¹⁴Their warped minds plot evil schemes; they're always causing trouble.

¹⁵As a result, disaster falls suddenly on such people; in just a moment they're destroyed without hope of healing.

¹⁶There are six things that the Lord hates, seven things that he absolutely detests:

¹⁷arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that murder the innocent,

¹⁸a mind that plots evil schemes, feet that hurriedly run to do wrong,

¹⁹a false witness that speaks lies, those who caused arguments in families.

²⁰My son, pay attention to your father's instruction, and don't reject your mother's teaching.

²¹Keep them always in mind. Tie them around your neck.

²²They will lead you as you walk along; they will watch over you as you sleep; when you wake up they will talk with you.

²³For the instruction is a lamp, and the teaching is a light. The correction that comes from discipline is the way to life.

²⁴It will protect you from an evil woman and the seductive words of a prostitute.

²⁵Don't let your mind lust after her beauty, or let her hypnotize you with her fluttering eyelashes.

²⁶You can buy a prostitute for the price of a loaf of bread, but adultery with another man's wife can cost you your life.

²⁷Can you put fire in your lap and not burn your clothes?

²⁸Can you walk on hot coals and not scorch your feet?

²⁹It's the same for anyone who sleeps with another man's wife. No one who touches her will remain unpunished.

³⁰People don't condemn a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he's hungry.

³¹But if he's caught, he has to pay back seven times what he stole, even if it means handing over everything he has in his house.

³²Any man who commits adultery with a woman has no sense; he who does so destroys himself.

³³He will be wounded and dishonored. His disgrace will never be removed.

³⁴For jealousy makes a husband furious, and he won't hold back when he takes revenge.