World English Bible
- My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,
- you are trapped by the words of your mouth; you are ensnared with the words of your mouth.
- Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.
- Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.
- Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
- Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;
- which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
- provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.
- How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?
- A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—
- so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.
- A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth,
- who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers,
- in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.
- Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.
- There are six things which the LORD hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
- arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
- a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,
- a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.
- My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
- Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.
- When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.
- For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
- to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.
- Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.
- For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.
- Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?
- Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?
- So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.
- Men don’t despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry,
- but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.
- He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.
- He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.
- For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.
- He won’t regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.
Proverbs 6 may seem to gather unrelated warnings: reckless debt, laziness, deceit, adultery. Yet one theme holds them together: the hidden bonds by which a life is either preserved or destroyed.
A person is first bound by a careless pledge, “ensnared” by his own speech. In the ancient Near East, striking hands sealed an obligation; debt could eventually cost land, household freedom, or even personal liberty. The warning is not against generosity, but against promising what God has not entrusted us to give. Humility, not image-management, is the escape: admit the mistake and seek release.
Later, however, the son is told to bind his parents’ teaching upon his heart. This is the chapter’s great contrast. If truth is not willingly bound within us, appetite, debt, deceit, and shame will bind us from without. Everyone wears a yoke; wisdom asks us to choose the one that gives life.
The list of six things—then seven—that the Lord hates is a Hebrew numerical pattern creating suspense and fullness. It moves across the whole body: eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet. Evil is not merely an idea held in private. It recruits the body and eventually enters the community. Significantly, the final abomination is sowing discord among brothers. Western readers often treat spirituality as individual, but biblical holiness is deeply communal. God hates whatever tears apart a people he intends to make one.
The same bodily pattern appears in the warning against adultery: eyelids entice, the heart desires, feet approach, the body touches fire. Sin progresses by small permissions. Augustine described sin as disordered love: not simply wanting bad things, but wanting good things in the wrong order, manner, or place. Sexual desire is not condemned; covenant-breaking desire is. The warning addresses a son, but its truth applies equally to women and men.
Nor should we miss the mother’s role. Her torah—the Hebrew word for instruction—is placed beside the father’s command. In a patriarchal culture, the mother is presented as an authoritative teacher of God’s wisdom. The chapter therefore cannot be read as suspicion of women: a woman’s teaching guards the son from the destructive invitation of another.
There are also three kinds of sleep here. The trapped debtor must not sleep until he seeks freedom. The sluggard sleeps while ruin approaches. But the one who binds wisdom to the heart can sleep because instruction keeps watch. Wisdom does not produce anxious striving; it teaches timely action and then grants peaceful rest.
Finally, Proverbs warns against becoming another person’s guarantor—yet the gospel announces that Christ became “the guarantee of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22). He did not enter our debt carelessly. He knowingly bound himself to us in covenant love, bearing what we could never repay. Freed by his costly pledge, we are called to live neither recklessly nor lazily, but faithfully.
Suggested cross-references: Deuteronomy 6:4–9;
Matthew 5:27–30; Romans 13:8–10; Hebrews 7:22–25; Ephesians 4:1–3
Suggested hymn: “Take My Life, and Let It Be”
Lord Jesus, bind your wisdom to my heart before sin binds my life. Consecrate my eyes, tongue, hands, heart, and feet. Make me diligent without anxiety, truthful without pride, and faithful in every covenant. Preserve the unity of your people, and teach me to rest beneath your watchful grace. Amen.