1-5. Dear friend, if you’ve gone into hock with your neighboror locked yourself into a deal with a stranger,If you’ve impulsively promised the shirt off your backand now find yourself shivering out in the cold,Friend, don’t waste a minute, get yourself out of that mess.You’re in that man’s clutches!Go, put on a long face; act desperate.Don’t procrastinate—there’s no time to lose.Run like a deer from the hunter,fly like a bird from the trapper!
12-15. Riffraff and rascalstalk out of both sides of their mouths.They wink at each other, they shuffle their feet,they cross their fingers behind their backs.Their perverse minds are always cooking up something nasty,always stirring up trouble.Catastrophe is just around the corner for them,a total smashup, their lives ruined beyond repair.
16-19. Here are six things God hates,and one more that he loathes with a passion:eyes that are arrogant,a tongue that lies,hands that murder the innocent,a heart that hatches evil plots,feet that race down a wicked track,a mouth that lies under oath,a troublemaker in the family.
20-23. Good friend, follow your father’s good advice;don’t wander off from your mother’s teachings.Wrap yourself in them from head to foot;wear them like a scarf around your neck.Wherever you walk, they’ll guide you;whenever you rest, they’ll guard you;when you wake up, they’ll tell you what’s next.For sound advice is a beacon,good teaching is a light,moral discipline is a life path.