Proverbs 6 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Practical Warnings

Pro 6:1My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
have given your pledge for a stranger,

Pro 6:2if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words of your mouth,

Pro 6:3then do this, my son, and save yourself,
for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
go, hasten,[fn] and plead urgently with your neighbor.

Pro 6:4

Pro 6:4Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;

Pro 6:5

Pro 6:5save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,[fn]
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Pro 6:6

Pro 6:6Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.

Pro 6:7

Pro 6:7Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,

Pro 6:8

Pro 6:8she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.

Pro 6:9

Pro 6:9How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?

Pro 6:10

Pro 6:10A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,

Pro 6:11

Pro 6:11and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

Pro 6:12

Pro 6:12A worthless person, a wicked man,
goes about with crooked speech,

Pro 6:13

Pro 6:13winks with his eyes, signals[fn] with his feet,
points with his finger,

Pro 6:14

Pro 6:14with perverted heart devises evil,
continually sowing discord;

Pro 6:15

Pro 6:15therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

Pro 6:16

Pro 6:16There are six things that the LORD hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:

Pro 6:17

Pro 6:17haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,

Pro 6:18

Pro 6:18a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,

Pro 6:19

Pro 6:19a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.

Warnings Against Adultery

Pro 6:20

Pro 6:20My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching.

Pro 6:21

Pro 6:21Bind them on your heart always;
tie them around your neck.

Pro 6:22

Pro 6:22When you walk, they[fn] will lead you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
and when you awake, they will talk with you.

Pro 6:23

Pro 6:23For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

Pro 6:24

Pro 6:24to preserve you from the evil woman,[fn]
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.[fn]

Pro 6:25

Pro 6:25Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

Pro 6:26

Pro 6:26for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread,[fn]
but a married woman[fn] hunts down a precious life.

Pro 6:27

Pro 6:27Can a man carry fire next to his chest
and his clothes not be burned?

Pro 6:28

Pro 6:28Or can one walk on hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?

Pro 6:29

Pro 6:29So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
none who touches her will go unpunished.

Pro 6:30

Pro 6:30People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,

Pro 6:31

Pro 6:31but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;
he will give all the goods of his house.

Pro 6:32

Pro 6:32He who commits adultery lacks sense;
he who does it destroys himself.

Pro 6:33

Pro 6:33He will get wounds and dishonor,
and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

Pro 6:34

Pro 6:34For jealousy makes a man furious,
and he will not spare when he takes revenge.

Pro 6:35

Pro 6:35He will accept no compensation;
he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(6:3)

Or humble yourself

(6:5)

Hebrew lacks of the hunter

(6:13)

Hebrew scrapes

(6:22)

Hebrew it; three times in this verse

(6:24)

Revocalization (compare Septuagint) yields from the wife of a neighbor

(6:24)

Hebrew the foreign woman

(6:26)

Or (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate) for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread

(6:26)

Hebrew a man’s wife

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