Proverbs 6:1-11

New International Version

Warnings Against Folly

6 My son,^(A) if you have put up security^(B) for your neighbor,^(C)
    if you have shaken hands in pledge^(D) for a stranger,
²you have been trapped by what you said,
    ensnared by the words of your mouth.
³So do this, my son, to free yourself,
    since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go—to the point of exhaustion—^[a]
    and give your neighbor no rest!
⁴Allow no sleep to your eyes,
    no slumber to your eyelids.^(E)
⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle^(F) from the hand of the hunter,^(G)
    like a bird from the snare of the fowler.^(H)

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard;^(I)
    consider its ways and be wise!
⁷It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
⁸yet it stores its provisions in summer^(J)
    and gathers its food at harvest.^(K)

⁹How long will you lie there, you sluggard?^(L)
    When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest^(M)—
¹¹and poverty^(N) will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.

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Footnotes

Proverbs 6:3 Or Go and humble yourself,

Proverbs 6:30-31

New International Version

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
³¹Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,^(A)
though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

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