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 set aside your money as a guarantee for your neighbor's loan, if you gave your promise for a loan of someone you do not know,
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.
then you have laid a trap for yourself by your promise and you have been caught by the words of your 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]!
When you are caught by your words, my son, do this and save yourself, since you have fallen into the hand of your neighbor; go and humble yourself and make your case before your neighbor.
4 Do not wait until tomorrow; [go immediately]! Do not rest until you [go and talk with him].
Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber.
5 Save yourself, like a deer that escapes from a deer hunter [or] like a bird that flees from a bird hunter.
Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 You lazy individual, learn something from [watching] the ants. Become wise from observing what they do.
Look at the ant, you lazy person, consider her ways, and be wise.
7 They do not have a king or a governor or any [other] person who rules them [and forces them to work],
It has no commander, officer, or ruler,
8 [but] they work hard [all] during the summer, gathering and storing food to eat during the winter.
yet it prepares its food in the summer and during the harvest it stores up what it will eat.
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 sleep, you lazy person? When will you rise from your 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;
“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest”—
11 and suddenly you will become poor. It will be as though a bandit suddenly comes and takes all that you have.
and your poverty will come like a robber and your needs like an armed soldier.
12 [I will describe for you what] worthless and evil people [are like]. They constantly lie;
A worthless person—a wicked man— lives by the crookedness of his speech,
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].
winking his eyes, making signals with his feet and pointing with his fingers.
14 They plan to do evil things. They constantly cause strife/trouble.
He plots evil with deceit in his heart; he always stirs up discord.
15 But disasters will hit them suddenly; they will be crushed/ruined and nothing will be able to heal them.
Therefore his disaster will overtake him in an instant; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.
16 There are six, [maybe] seven, kinds of people that Yahweh hates. [They are]:
There are six things that Yahweh hates, seven that are disgusting to him.
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 eyes of a proud person, a tongue that lies, hands that shed the blood of innocent people,
18 people who plan to do evil deeds; people [SYN] who run quickly to do wrong things;
a heart that invents wicked schemes, feet that quickly run to do evil,
19 people who easily tell lies in court; and people who cause strife between family members.
a witness who breathes out lies and one who sows discord among brothers.
20 My son, obey my commands, and do not ignore what your mother has taught you.
My son, obey the command of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.
21 Remember the things that we have said. Those things should be [like a beautiful necklace] around your neck.
Always bind them on your heart; tie them 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.
When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you wake up, they will teach you.
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 commands are a lamp, and the teaching is a light; the corrections that come by instruction are the way of life.
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.
It keeps you from the immoral woman, from the smooth words of an immoral woman.
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).
Do not lust in your heart after her beauty and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes.
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.
Sleeping with a prostitute can cost the price of a loaf of bread, but the wife of another may cost you your very life.
27 Can you carry hot coals in your pocket and not be burned [RHQ]?
Can a man carry a fire against his chest without burning his clothes?
28 Can you walk on burning coals and not scorch/burn your feet?
Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching 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 the man who sleeps with his neighbor's wife; the one who sleeps with her will not go unpunished.
30 We do not despise a thief if he steals some food because he is very hungry.
People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his need when he is hungry.
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].
Yet if he is caught, he will pay back seven times what he stole; he must give up everything of value in his house.
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].
The one who commits adultery has no sense; the one who does it destroys himself.
33 [That woman’s husband] will wound him badly, and [other people] will despise him. His shame will never end.
Wounds and shame are what he deserves and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
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 jealousy makes a man furious; he will show no mercy when he takes his revenge.
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 accept no compensation and he cannot be bought off, though you offer him many gifts.
