Study Desk

My son, if thou have become surety for thy neighbour, - have struck for a stranger thy hands,

Thou hast been snared by the sayings of thy mouth, - thou hast been caught by the sayings of thy mouth.

Do this then, my son, and deliver thyself, When thou hast come into the hand of thy neighbour, Go, haste thee, and urge thy neighbour;

Do not give sleep to thine eyes, or slumber to thine eyelashes;

Deliver thyself, as a gazelle out of the hand, and as a bird, out of the hand of the fowler.

At all times, doth a friend love, and, a brother for distress, must be born.

Thou hast been slothful in the day of straitness, Strait, is thy strength.

Thine own friend and thy father's friend, do not thou forsake; but, the house of thy brother, do not enter, in thy day of calamity, Better a neighbour near, than a brother far off.