The Proverbs

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 6 -

Warning against suretyship

My son, if you have taken a pledge on behalf of your friend, then you have bound your hand to an outsider,

then you are ensnared by the words of your own mouth, and taken captive by your own words.

Therefore, my son, do what I say, and free yourself, for you have fallen into the hand of your neighbor. Run, hurry, awaken your friend.

Do not grant sleep to your eyes, nor let your eyelids slumber.

Rescue yourself like a gazelle from the hand, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Warning against laziness

Go to the ant, you lazy one, and consider her ways, and so learn wisdom.

For though she has no ruler, nor instructor, nor leader,

she provides meals for herself in the summer, and she gathers at the harvest what she may eat.

How long will you slumber, you lazy one? When will you rise up from your sleep?

You will sleep a little, you will slumber a little, you will fold your hands a little to sleep,

and then destitution will meet with you, like a traveler, and poverty, like an armed man. Yet truly, if you would be diligent, then your harvest will arrive like a fountain, and destitution will flee far from you.

Warning against falsehood

An apostate man, a harmful man, walks with a perverse mouth;(a)

he winks with the eyes, touches with the foot, speaks with the finger.

With a depraved heart he devises evil, and at all times he sows conflict.

To this one, his perdition will arrive promptly, and he shall be crushed suddenly: he will no longer have any remedy.

Prevention of seven sins

Six things there are that the Lord hates, and the seventh, his soul detests:(b)

haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises the most wicked thoughts, feet running swiftly unto evil,

a deceitful witness bringing forth lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.(c)

Prevention against adultery

My son, preserve the precepts of your father, and do not dismiss the law of your mother.

Bind them to your heart unceasingly, and encircle them around your throat.

When you walk, let them keep step with you. When you sleep, let them guard you. And when you keep watch, speak with them.

For commandment is a lamp, and law is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life.

So may they guard you from an evil woman, and from the flattering tongue of the outsider.(d)

Let not your heart desire her beauty; do not be captivated by her winks.

For the price of a prostitute is only one loaf. Yet the woman seizes the precious soul of a man.(e)

Would a man be able to conceal fire in his bosom, so that his garments would not burn?

Or could he walk over burning coals, so that his feet would not be burned?

So also, he who enters to the wife of his neighbor shall not be clean when he touches her.

Not so great is the fault when someone has stolen. For he steals so as to satisfy a hungry soul.(f)

Also, if he is apprehended, he shall repay sevenfold and hand over all the substance of his house.

But whoever is an adulterer, because of the emptiness of his heart, will destroy his own soul.

He gathers shame and dishonor to himself, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

For the jealousy and fury of the husband will not spare him on the day of vindication,

nor will he agree to the pleadings of anyone, nor will he accept, as repayment, a multitude of gifts.

Footnotes

(a)6:12 One meaning of this passage is to refer to the Antichrist. The word ‘inutilis’ can mean ‘useless,’ but in the context of apostasy and perverse words, it must have its alternate meaning, which is ‘harmful.’(Conte)

(b)6:16 Again, this refers, in one level of meaning to the Antichrist. He will have a reign of six years, plus part of a seventh year. The six things are the six full years of his reign, and the seventh is the most detestable time of his reign (when he attempts to make a false ascension to the heavens). The number 616 refers to the Antichrist’s name: six letters in his first name, six letters in this last name, with his middle initial in-between.(Conte)

(c)6:19 These three verses (6:17-19) are a description of the Antichrist: he tries to sow discord among the brethren of the Church; he bears false witness against the true Christ.(Conte)

(d)6:24 The negative things that are said in the Book of Proverbs about an evil woman or a loose (or kept) woman, can also be applied to the false prophet, who is a associated with the Antichrist and who will be a female antipope.(Conte)

(e)6:26 The loaf is the false Eucharist promoted by this female false prophet, especially when she becomes antipope. She tries to seize men’s souls with flattery. She is attractive looking, and claims to be chaste, but she a loose woman, worse than a prostitute.(Conte)

(f)6:30 The fault is not so great, etc:The sin of theft is not so great, as to be compared with adultery: especially when a person pressed with hunger (which is the case here spoken of) steals to satisfy nature. Moreover the damage done by theft may much more easily be repaired, than the wrong done by adultery. But this does not hinder, but that theft also is a mortal sin, forbidden by one of the ten commandments.(Challoner)