Proverbs

¹MY SON, if you have become security for your neighbor, if you have given your pledge for a stranger or another, ²You are snared with the words of your lips, you are caught by the speech of your mouth. ³Do 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]. ⁴Give not [unnecessary] sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids; ⁵Deliver yourself, as a roe or gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. ⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise!–[Job 12:7.]