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My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor,
if you have bound yourself to another, 1
2
you are snared by the utterance of your lips, 2
caught by the words of your mouth.
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So do this, my child, and save yourself,
for you have come into your neighbor's power:
go, hurry, 3 and plead with your neighbor.
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Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
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save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, 4
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
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Go to the ant, you lazybones;
consider its ways, and be wise.
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Without having any chief
or officer or ruler,
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it prepares its food in summer,
and gathers its sustenance in harvest.
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How long will you lie there, O lazybones?
When will you rise from your sleep?
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A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
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and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want, like an armed warrior.
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A scoundrel and a villain
goes around with crooked speech,
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winking the eyes, shuffling the feet,
pointing the fingers,
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with perverted mind devising evil,
continually sowing discord;
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on such a one calamity will descend suddenly;
in a moment, damage beyond repair.
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There are six things that the
seven that are an abomination to him:
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haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
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a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that hurry to run to evil,
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a lying witness who testifies falsely,
and one who sows discord in a family.