1My son, if thou hast promised for thy friend, thou hast fastened thine hand at a stranger.

2Thou art bound by the words of thy mouth; and thou art taken with thine own words.

3Therefore, my son, do thou that that I say, and deliver thyself; for thou hast fallen into the hand of thy neighbour. Run thou about, haste thou, raise thy friend;

4give thou not sleep to thine eyes, neither thine eyelids nap.

5Be thou ravished, as a doe from the hand; and as a bird from [the] ambushings of the fowler.

6O! thou slow man, go to the ant; and behold thou his ways, and learn thou wisdom.

7Which when he hath no duke, neither commander, nor prince;

8maketh ready in summer meat to himself, and gathereth together in harvest that, that he shall eat.

9How long shalt thou, slow man, sleep? when shalt thou rise from thy sleep?

10A little thou shalt sleep, a little thou shalt nap; a little thou shalt join together thine hands that thou sleep.

11And then neediness, as a way-goer, shall come to thee; and poverty, as an armed man. Forsooth if thou art not slow, thy ripe corn shall come as a well; and neediness shall flee far from thee.

12A man apostate, is a man unprofit-able, he goeth with a wayward mouth;

13he beckoneth with eyes, he trampeth with the foot, he speaketh with the finger,

14by shrewd heart he imagineth evil, and in all time he soweth dissensions.

15His perdition shall come to him anon, and he shall be broken suddenly; and he shall no more have medicine.

16Six things there be, which the Lord hateth; and his soul curseth the seventh thing.

17High eyes, a tongue liar, that is, accustomable to deadly leasing, hands shedding out innocent blood,

18an heart imagining full wicked thoughts, feet swift to run into evil,

19a man bringing forth leasing, a false witness; and him that soweth discord among brethren.

20My son, keep the commandments of thy father; and forsake [thou] not the law of thy mother.

21Bind thou those continually in thine heart; and encompass to thy throat.

22When thou goest, go they with thee; when thou sleepest, keep they thee; and thou waking, speak with them.

23For the commandment of God is a lantern, and the law is light, and the blaming of teaching is the way of life;

24that they keep thee from an evil woman, and from a flattering tongue of a strange woman.

25Thine heart covet not the fairness of her; neither be thou taken by the beckonings of her.

26For the price of a whore is scarcely a gobbet of bread; but such a woman taketh the precious soul of a man.

27Whether a man may hide fire in his bosom, that his clothes burn not;

28either go on coals, and his feet be not burnt?

29So he that entereth to the wife of his neighbour; shall not be clean, when he hath touched her.

30It is no great sin, when a man stealeth; for he stealeth to fill an hungry soul.

31And he taken shall yield the seventhfold; and he shall give all the chattel [or substance] of his house, and shall deliver himself.

32But he that is an adulterer, shall lose his soul, for the poverty of heart, that is, wanting of reason.

33He gathereth filth, and scandal to himself; and his shame shall not be done away.

34For the fervent love and strong vengeance of the man shall not spare in the day of vengeance,

35neither shall assent to the prayers of any; neither he shall take many gifts for ransom.