Practical Warnings
1 My son, if you have put up
1security for your neighbor, have
2given your pledge for a stranger,
2
if you are
3snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth,
3
then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, hasten, and
4plead urgently with your neighbor.
4
5Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;
5
save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
6like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6
7Go to
8the ant, O
9sluggard; consider her ways, and
10be wise.
7
11Without having any chief,
12officer, or ruler,
8
she prepares her bread
13in summer and
14gathers her food in harvest.
9
15How long will you lie there,
16O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
10
17A little sleep, a little slumber,
18a little
19folding of the hands to rest,
11
20and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.