Proverbs 6:4-14

4 1Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;
5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,[a] 2like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 3Go to 4the ant, O 5sluggard; consider her ways, and 6be wise.
7 7Without having any chief, 8officer, or ruler,
8 she prepares her bread 9in summer and 10gathers her food in harvest.
9 11How long will you lie there, 12O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
10 13A little sleep, a little slumber, 14a little 15folding of the hands to rest,
11 16and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.
12 17A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with 18crooked speech,
13 19winks with his eyes, signals[b] with his feet, points with his finger,
14 with 20perverted heart 21devises evil, continually 22sowing discord;

Proverbs 6:4-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 6

In this chapter the wise man dissuades from rash suretyship; exposes the sin of idleness; describes a wicked man; makes mention of seven things hateful to God; exhorts to attend to parental instructions and precepts, and cautions against adultery. Suretyship is described, Pr 6:1; and represented as a snare and a net, in which men are taken, Pr 6:2; and advice is given what to do in such a case, for safety in it, and deliverance from it, Pr 6:3-5; The sin of slothfulness is exposed, by observing the industry of the ant, Pr 6:6-8; by expostulating with the sluggard for his continuance in sloth, and by mimicking him, Pr 6:9,10; and by the poverty it brings upon him, Pr 6:11. Then a naughty wicked man is described, by his mouth, eyes, feet, fingers, and heart, whose ruin is sudden and inevitable, Pr 6:11-15. The seven things hateful to God are particularly named, Pr 6:16-19. And next the exhortation in some preceding chapters is reassumed, to attend to the instructions of parents; which will be found ornamental, pleasant, and useful, Pr 6:20-23. Especially to preserve from the lewd woman cautioned against, Pr 6:24,25; whose company is dissuaded from; on account of the extreme poverty and distress she brings persons to, and even danger of life, Pr 6:26; from the unavoidable ruin such come into, Pr 6:27-29; from the sin of uncleanness being greater than that of theft, Pr 6:30,31; from the folly the adulterer betrays; from the destruction of his soul, and the disgrace he brings on himself, Pr 6:32,33; and from the rage and irreconcilable offence of the husband of the adulteress, Pr 6:34,35.

Cross References 22

Footnotes 2

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.