the Second Week after Easter
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Proverbs 6:1
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- InternationalParallel Translations
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor
My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, If you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;
My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger,
My child, be careful about giving a guarantee for somebody else's loan, about promising to pay what someone else owes.
My child, if you have made a pledge for your neighbor, and have become a guarantor for a stranger,
My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor, Or have given a handshake for a stranger,
My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, If you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;
My sonne, if thou be surety for thy neighbour, and hast striken hands with the stranger,
My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor,Have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger,
My child, suppose you agree to pay the debt of someone, who cannot repay a loan.
My son, if you have put up security for your friend, if you committed yourself on behalf of another;
My son, if thou hast become surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand for a stranger,
My son, don't make yourself responsible for the debts of others. Don't make such deals with friends or strangers.
MY son, if you have become surety for your friend, if you have obligated yourself to a stranger,
My child, if you have pledged to your neighbor, if you have bound yourself to the stranger,
My son, if you are surety for your friend, if you struck your hands with an alien,
My sone, yf thou be suertie for yi neghboure, thou hast fastened thine hode wt another ma:
My son, if thou art become surety for thy neighbor, If thou hast stricken thy hands for a stranger;
My son, if you have made yourself responsible for your neighbour, or given your word for another,
My son, if thou art become surety for thy neighbour, if thou hast struck thy hands for a stranger--
My sonne, if thou bee surety for thy friend, it thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
My sonne if thou be suretie for thy neyghbour, and hast fastened thyne hande for another man:
My son, if thou become surety for thy friend, thou shalt deliver thine hand to an enemy.
My son, if thou art become surety for thy neighbour, if thou hast stricken thy hands for a stranger,
Mi sone, if thou hast bihiyt for thi freend; thou hast fastned thin hoond at a straunger.
My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, If you have stricken your hands for a stranger;
My son, if thou art surety for thy friend, [if] thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
My son, if you become surety for your friend, If you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
My child, if you have put up security for a friend's debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger—
My son, if you have put yourself as a trust for what your neighbor owes to another, or if you have made a promise for a stranger,
My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor, if you have bound yourself to another,
My son, if thou have become surety for thy neighbour, - have struck for a stranger thy hands,
My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, thou hast engaged fast thy hand to a stranger,
My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger;
My son! if thou hast been surety for thy friend, Hast stricken for a stranger thy hand,
Dear friend, if you've gone into hock with your neighbor or locked yourself into a deal with a stranger, If you've impulsively promised the shirt off your back and 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!
My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, Have given a pledge for a stranger,
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
if thou be: Proverbs 11:15, Proverbs 17:18, Proverbs 20:16, Proverbs 22:26, Proverbs 27:13, Genesis 43:9, Genesis 44:32, Genesis 44:33, Job 17:3, Philemon 1:18, Philemon 1:19, Hebrews 7:22
thou hast: To strike, or join hands, was an ancient form of entering into contracts in all counties and all ages.
Reciprocal: Matthew 5:25 - with Luke 12:58 - give 1 Thessalonians 2:11 - as
Cross-References
And God blessed them [granting them certain authority] and said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subjugate it [putting it under your power]; and rule over (dominate) the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth."
Gill's Notes on the Bible
My son, if thou be surety for thy friend,.... To another; hast engaged thyself by promise or bond, or both, to pay a debt for him, if he is not able, or if required; or hast laid thyself under obligation to any, to see the debt of another paid;
[if] thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger; or "to" him b; whom thou knowest not, and to whom thou owest nothing; and hast given him thine hand upon it, as well as thy word and bond, that what such an one owes him shall be paid; a gesture used in suretyship for the confirmation of it, Proverbs 17:18; or, "for a stranger" c And the sense is, either if thou art become bound for a friend of thine, and especially if for a stranger thou knowest little or nothing of, this is a piece of rashness and weakness; or, as Gersom, if thou art a surety to thy friend for a stranger, this also is a great inadvertency and oversight. It is a rash and inconsiderate entering into suretyship that is here cautioned against; doing it without inquiring into, and having sufficient knowledge of the person engaged for; and without considering whether able to answer the obligation, if required, without hurting a man's self and family; otherwise suretyship may lawfully be entered into, and good be done by it, and no hurt to the surety himself and family. Jarchi interprets it of the Israelites engaging themselves to the Lord at Sinai, to keep his commandments.
b לזר "extraneo", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Baynus, Mercerus, Gejerus, Cocceius, Schultens. c "Pro alieno", Tigurine version "pro alio peregrino", Michaelis.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Surety - The “pledge,” or security for payment, which, for example, David was to bring back from his brothers 1 Samuel 17:18. So the word was used in the primitive trade transactions of the early Israelites.
In the warnings against this suretyship, in the Book of Proverbs, we may trace the influence of contact with the Phoenicians. The merchants of Tyre and Zidon seem to have discovered the value of credit as an element of wealth. A man might obtain goods, or escape the pressure of a creditor at an inconvenient season, or obtain a loan on more favorable terms, by finding security. To give such security might be one of the kindest offices which one friend could render to another. Side by side, however, with a legitimate system of credit there sprang up, as in later times, a fraudulent counterfeit. Phoenician or Jewish money-lenders (the “stranger”) were ready to make their loans to the spendthrift. He was equally ready to find a companion (the “friend”) who would become his surety. It was merely a form, just writing a few words, just “a clasping of the hands” (see the marginal reference) in token that the obligation was accepted, and that was all. It would be unfriendly to refuse. And yet, as the teacher warns his hearers, there might be, in that moment of careless weakness, the first link of a long chain of ignominy, galling, fretting, wearing, depriving life of all its peace. The Jewish law of debt, hard and stern like that of most ancient nations, aright be enforced against him in all its rigour. Money and land might go, the very bed under him might be seized, and his garment torn from his back Proverbs 20:16; Proverbs 22:27, the older and more lenient law Exodus 22:25-27 having apparently fallen into disuse. he might be brought into a life-long bondage, subject only to the possible relief of the year of jubilee, when the people were religious enough to remember and observe it. His wives, his sons, his daughters might be sharers in that slavery Nehemiah 5:3-5. It was doubtful whether he could claim the privilege which under Exodus 21:2 belonged to an Israelite slave that had been bought. Against such an evil, no warnings could be too frequent or to urgent.
Stricken thy hand - The natural symbol of the promise to keep a contract; in this case, to pay another man’s debts. Compare Proverbs 17:18; Proverbs 22:26; Job 17:3; Ezekiel 17:18.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER VI
Exhortations against becoming surety for others, 1-5;
against idleness, from the example of the ant, 6-11;
description of a worthless person, 12-15;
seven things hateful to God, 16-19;
the benefits of instruction, 20-23;
farther exhortations against bad women, and especially against
adultery, 24-33;
what may be expected from jealousy, 34, 35.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI
Verse Proverbs 6:1. If thou be surety for thy friend — לרעך lereacha, for thy neighbour; i.e., any person. If thou pledge thyself in behalf of another, thou takest the burden off him, and placest it on thine own shoulders; and when he knows he has got one to stand between him and the demands of law and justice, he will feel little responsibility; his spirit of exertion will become crippled, and listlessness as to the event will be the consequence. His own character will suffer little; his property nothing, for his friend bears all the burden: and perhaps the very person for whom he bore this burden treats him with neglect; and, lest the restoration of the pledge should be required, will avoid both the sight and presence of his friend. Give what thou canst; but, except in extreme cases, be surety for no man. Striking or shaking hands when the mouth had once made the promise, was considered as the ratification of the engagement; and thus the man became ensnared with the words of his mouth.
