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- My son, if thou hast become surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand for a stranger,
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- thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
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- Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, since thou hast come into the hand of thy friend: go, humble thyself, and be urgent with thy friend.
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- Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids:
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- deliver thyself as a gazelle from the hand [of the hunter], and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
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- Go to the ant, thou sluggard;
consider her ways and be wise:
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- which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
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- provideth her bread in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest.
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- How long, sluggard, wilt thou lie down?
When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
- 10
- A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest!
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- So shall thy poverty come as a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man.
- 12
- A man of Belial, a wicked person, is he that goeth about with a perverse mouth;
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- he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;
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- deceits are in his heart;
he deviseth mischief at all times, he soweth discords.
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- Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly: in a moment shall he be broken, and without remedy.
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- These six [things] doth Jehovah hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
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- haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood;
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- a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations;
feet that are swift in running to mischief;
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- a false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discords among brethren.
- 20
- My son, observe thy father's commandment, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;
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- bind them continually upon thy heart, tie them about thy neck:
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- when thou walkest, it shall lead thee;
when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and [when] thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
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- For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
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- to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
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- Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids;
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- for by means of a whorish woman [a man is brought] to a loaf of bread, and another's wife doth hunt for the precious soul.
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- Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his garments not be burned?
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- Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?
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- So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife: whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
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- They do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry:
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- and if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold;
he shall give all the substance of his house.
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- Whoso committeth adultery with a woman is void of understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
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- A wound and contempt shall he get;
and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
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- For jealousy is the rage of a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance;
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- he will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content though thou multipliest [thy] gifts.
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