¹My son, if you provide security for your neighbour,

If you strike a deal with a stranger,

²If you are ensnared with the sayings you utter,

If by the sayings you utter you are caught,

³Then do this, my son, to extricate yourself:

When you have come into your neighbour's grip,

Go and humble yourself,

And act firmly with your neighbour.

⁴Do not allow your eyes to sleep,

Or your eyelids to slumber.

⁵Free yourself like a gazelle from the grip of the predator,

And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant,

You who are lazy;

Observe its ways,

And become wise.

⁷It does not have a superintendent,

Or overseer, or ruler,

⁸As it stocks up its food in the summer

And stores its provisions in the harvest season.

⁹How long, you who are lazy,

Will you lie down?

When will you get up from your sleep?

¹⁰After a little sleep,

A little slumber,

A little folding the arms

To lie down,

¹¹Poverty comes on you like a vagrant,

And shortage like a man with a shield.

¹²An iniquitous person is a worthless man;

He walks with perverse speech.

¹³He winks with his eyes,

He speaks with his feet;

He points with his fingers.

¹⁴Subversive things are in his heart;

He devises evil all the time.

He sows discord,

¹⁵Which is why his downfall will suddenly come;

Suddenly he will be broken without remedy.

¹⁶The Lord hates these six things,

And seven are an abomination to his being:

¹⁷Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

And hands which shed innocent blood;

¹⁸A heart which devises vain thoughts,

Feet which are quick to run to wrongdoing,

¹⁹A false witness who belches out lies,

And he who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father's commandment,

And do not forsake your mother's instruction.

²¹Bind them onto your heart at all times;

Tie them round your neck.

²²As you walk around,

Let it lead you;

When you lie down,

It will guard you.

When you awaken,

It will commune with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp,

And the law is light,

And the reproofs in correction are the way of life,

²⁴In keeping you from an evil woman

– From the flattery of an exotic tongue.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

And do not let her captivate you with her eyelids,

²⁶Because going after a prostitute

Will lead to forfeiture of everything up to a loaf of bread,

And another man's wife will hunt one's precious life.

²⁷Can a man gather up fire in his bosom

Without his clothes being burnt?

²⁸Can a man walk on burning coals

And his feet not be seared?

²⁹Such is he who goes to his neighbour's wife;

No-one who touches her will be held guiltless.

³⁰A thief may not be despised if he steals

To fill himself when he is hungry,

³¹But if he is caught,

He shall repay seven times over

– He may have to give all the assets of his household.

³²He who commits adultery with a woman is weak-minded;

He who does it ruins himself.

³³He will encounter adversity and shame,

And his reproach will not be wiped out,

³⁴For a man's fury derives from jealousy,

And he will not show pity on the day of vengeance.

³⁵He will not accept any payment of damages;

He will not become amenable

Even if you make the gift large.