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trapped

Proverbs 6:1-35 (JDV).

Proverbs 6:1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor or entered into an agreement with a stranger,
Proverbs 6:2 you have been trapped by the words of your mouth trapped by the words from your mouth.
Proverbs 6:3 Do this, then, my son, and free yourself, because you have put yourself in your neighbor’s power: Go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor.
Proverbs 6:4 Don’t give sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.
Proverbs 6:5 Escape like a gazelle from a hunter, like a bird from a hunter’s trap.
Proverbs 6:6 Go to the ant, you idler! Observe its roads and become wise.
Proverbs 6:7 Without leader, administrator, or ruler,
Proverbs 6:8 it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food during harvest.
Proverbs 6:9 How long will you stay in bed, you idler? When will you get up from your sleep?
Proverbs 6:10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest,
Proverbs 6:11 and your poverty will come like a robber, your need, like a bandit.
Proverbs 6:12 A worthless person, a wicked man goes around speaking dishonestly,
Proverbs 6:13 winking his eyes, signaling with his feet, and gesturing with his fingers.
Proverbs 6:14 He always plots evil with perversity in his heart; he stirs up trouble.
Proverbs 6:15 Therefore calamity will strike him suddenly; he will be shattered instantly, beyond recovery.
Proverbs 6:16 Yahveh hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to him:
Proverbs 6:17 arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
Proverbs 6:18 a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil,
Proverbs 6:19 a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.
Proverbs 6:20 My son, keep your father’s command, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching.
Proverbs 6:21 Always bind them to your heart; tie them around your neck.
Proverbs 6:22 When you walk here and there, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will talk to you.
Proverbs 6:23 For a command is a lamp, teaching is a light, and corrective correction is the road to life.
Proverbs 6:24 They will protect you from an evil woman, from the flattering tongue of a wayward woman.
Proverbs 6:25 Don’t lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyelashes.
Proverbs 6:26 For a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread, but the wife of another man goes after a precious throat.
Proverbs 6:27 Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?
Proverbs 6:28 Can a man walk on burning coals without scorching his feet?
Proverbs 6:29 So it is with the one who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
Proverbs 6:30 People don’t despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his throat when he is hungry.
Proverbs 6:31 Still, if caught, he must pay seven times as much; he must give up all the wealth in his house.
Proverbs 6:32 The one who commits adultery lacks sense; whoever does so destroys his throat.
Proverbs 6:33 He will get a beating and dishonor, and his disgrace will never be removed.
Proverbs 6:34 Because jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
Proverbs 6:35 He will not be appeased by anything or be persuaded by lavish bribes.

trapped

The essence of wisdom is knowing the right way to live so that you can avoid trouble. Wisdom is designed to keep is from getting trapped.

But what do you do after you have already made a mistake or two? Is it hopeless? No, but it is serious. Solomon advises his sons if they are ever caught in a trap, they should seek freedom immediately, and keep seeking it until they are free. They should not just sleep on it, and hope everything turns out alright. It is in that context that he asks them to consider the ant compared to the sluggard. When we have made our bed (so to speak), the last thing we should do is just lie in it.

LORD, give us the wisdom to seek freedom from our traps, keep working at it until we are free, and stay away from future traps.