Admonitions and Warnings against Dangerous and Destructive Acts
*My child, if you have made a pledge for your neighbor, and have become a guarantor for a stranger, *if you have been ensnared by the words you have uttered, and have been caught by the words you have spoken,*then, my child, do this in order to deliver yourself, because you have fallen into your neighbor’s power: go, humble yourself, and appeal firmly to your neighbor.*Permit no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.*Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare, and like a bird from the trap of the fowler.*Go to the ant, you sluggard; observe its ways and be wise!*It has no commander, overseer, or ruler,*yet it prepares its food in the summer; it gathers at the harvest what it will eat. *How long, you sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from your sleep? *A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to relax, *and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man. *A worthless and wicked person walks around saying perverse things; *he winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, and points with his fingers; *he plots evil with perverse thoughts in his heart, he spreads contention at all times.*Therefore, his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.*There are six things that the Lord hates, even seven things that are an abomination to him: *haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, *a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift to run to evil,*a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who spreads discord among family members. *My child, guard the commands of your father and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.*Bind them on your heart continually; fasten them around your neck.*When you walk about, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will talk to you.*For the commandments are like a lamp, instruction is like a light, and rebukes of discipline are like the road leading to life, *by keeping you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the loose woman. *Do not lust in your heart for her beauty, and do not let her captivate you with her alluring eyes; *for on account of a prostitute one is brought down to a loaf of bread, but the wife of another man preys on your precious life. *Can a man hold fire against his chest without burning his clothes?*Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?*So it is with the one who has sex with his neighbor’s wife; no one who touches her will escape punishment. *People do not despise a thief when he steals to fulfill his need when he is hungry.*Yet if he is caught he must repay seven times over, he might even have to give all the wealth of his house.*A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks wisdom, whoever does it destroys his own life. *He will be beaten and despised, and his reproach will not be wiped away; *for jealousy kindles a husband’s rage, and he will not show mercy when he takes revenge.*He will not consider any compensation; he will not be willing, even if you multiply the compensation.
