1. MY SON, if you have become security for your neighbor, if you have given your pledge for a stranger or another,
2. You are snared with the words of your lips, you are caught by the speech of your mouth.
3. Do this now [at once and earnestly], my son, and deliver yourself when you have put yourself into the power of your neighbor; go, bestir and humble yourself, and beg your neighbor [to pay his debt and thereby release you].
4. Give not [unnecessary] sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids;
5. Deliver yourself, as a roe or gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6. Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise!–[Job 12:7.]
7. Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
8. Provides her food in the summer and gathers her supplies in the harvest.
9. How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep? [Prov. 24:33, 34.]