Proverbs 6
1 My son! If you have been guarantor for your friend, Have struck your hand for a stranger,
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,
2 Have been snared with sayings of your mouth, Have been captured with sayings of your mouth,
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.
3 Do this now, my son, and be delivered, For you have come into the hand of your friend. Go, trample on yourself, and strengthen your friend,
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]!
4 Do not give sleep to your eyes, And slumber to your eyelids,
Do not wait until tomorrow; [go immediately]! Do not rest until you [go and talk with him].
5 Be delivered as a roe from the hand, And as a bird from the hand of a fowler.
Save yourself, like a deer that escapes from a deer hunter [or] like a bird that flees from a bird hunter.
6 Go to the ant, O slothful one, See her ways and be wise;
You lazy individual, learn something from [watching] the ants. Become wise from observing what they do.
7 Which has no captain, overseer, and ruler,
They do not have a king or a governor or any [other] person who rules them [and forces them to work],
8 She prepares her bread in summer, She has gathered her food in harvest.
[but] they work hard [all] during the summer, gathering and storing food to eat during the winter.
9 Until when, O slothful one, do you lie? When do you arise from your sleep?
[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]?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber, A little clasping of the hands to rest,
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;
11 And your poverty has come as a traveler, And your want as an armed man.
and suddenly you will become poor. It will be as though a bandit suddenly comes and takes all that you have.
12 A man of worthlessness, a man of iniquity, Walking [with] perverseness of mouth,
[I will describe for you what] worthless and evil people [are like]. They constantly lie;
13 Winking with his eyes, speaking with his feet, Directing with his fingers,
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].
14 Contrariness [is] in his heart, devising evil at all times, He sends forth contentions.
They plan to do evil things. They constantly cause strife/trouble.
15 Therefore his calamity comes suddenly, He is broken instantly—and no healing.
But disasters will hit them suddenly; they will be crushed/ruined and nothing will be able to heal them.
16 These six has YHWH hated, Indeed, seven [are] abominations to His soul:
There are six, [maybe] seven, kinds of people that Yahweh hates. [They are]:
17 High eyes, False tongues, And hands shedding innocent blood,
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;
18 A heart devising thoughts of vanity, Feet hastening to run to evil,
people who plan to do evil deeds; people [SYN] who run quickly to do wrong things;
19 A false witness [who] breathes out lies, And one sending forth contentions between brothers.
people who easily tell lies in court; and people who cause strife between family members.
20 Keep, my son, the command of your father, And do not leave the law of your mother.
My son, obey my commands, and do not ignore what your mother has taught you.
21 Bind them on your heart continually, Tie them on your neck.
Remember the things that we have said. Those things should be [like a beautiful necklace] around your neck.
22 In your going up and down, it leads you, In your lying down, it watches over you, And you have awoken—it talks [with] you.
[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.
23 For the command [is] a lamp, And the Law a light, And a way of life [are] reproofs of instruction,
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.
24 To preserve you from an evil woman, From the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
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.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, And do not let her take you with her eyelids.
[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).
26 For a harlot consumes to a cake of bread, And an adulteress hunts the precious soul.
[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.
27 Does a man take fire into his bosom, And are his garments not burned?
Can you carry hot coals in your pocket and not be burned [RHQ]?
28 Does a man walk on the hot coals, And are his feet not scorched?
Can you walk on burning coals and not scorch/burn your feet?
29 So [is] he who has gone in to the wife of his neighbor, None who touches her is innocent.
[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.
30 They do not despise the thief, When he steals to fill his soul when he is hungry,
We do not despise a thief if he steals some food because he is very hungry.
31 And being found he repays sevenfold, He gives all the substance of his house.
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].
32 He who commits adultery [with] a woman lacks heart, He who does it is destroying his soul.
[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].
33 He finds a stroke and shame, And his reproach is not wiped away,
[That woman’s husband] will wound him badly, and [other people] will despise him. His shame will never end.
34 For jealousy [is] the fury of a man, And he does not spare in a day of vengeance.
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].
35 He does not accept the appearance of any atonement, Indeed, he does not consent, Though you multiply bribes!
And he will not accept any bribe/money, even if it is a big bribe, to (appease him/cause him to stop being angry).
