1. My son, if you have become surety to your neighbor,given your hand in pledge to another,
2. You have been snared by the utterance of your lips,caught by the words of your mouth;
3. So do this, my son, to free yourself,since you have fallen into your neighbor’s power:Go, hurry, rouse your neighbor!
4. Give no sleep to your eyes,nor slumber to your eyelids;
5. Free yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,or like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6. Go to the ant, O sluggard,study her ways and learn wisdom;
7. For though she has no chief,no commander or ruler,
8. She procures her food in the summer,stores up her provisions in the harvest.
9. How long, O sluggard, will you lie there?when will you rise from your sleep?
10. A little sleep, a little slumber,a little folding of the arms to rest—
11. Then poverty will come upon you like a robber,and want like a brigand.
12. Scoundrels, villains, are theywho deal in crooked talk.
13. Shifty of eye,feet ever moving,pointing with fingers,
14. They have perversity in their hearts,always plotting evil,sowing discord.
15. Therefore their doom comes suddenly;in an instant they are crushed beyond cure.