Proverbs 6:3-20 (Vespers, 2nd reading)
- 3
- So do this, my son, and deliver yourself; for you have come into the hand of your friend: go and humble yourself; plead with your friend.
- 4
- Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.
- 5
- Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
- 6
- Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise,
- 7
- which, having no captain, overseer or ruler,
- 8
- provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.
- 9
- How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?
- 10
- A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep –
- 11
- so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.
- 12
- A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth;
- 13
- he winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet, he points with his fingers;
- 14
- perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually, he sows discord.
- 15
- Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.
- 16
- These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
- 17
- A proud look, a lying tongue,
- 18
- a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil,
- 19
- a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.
- 20
- My son, keep your father’s command, and do not forsake the law of your mother.