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The Folly of Guaranteeing Loans

My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor,
if you have agreed to a deal[a] with a stranger,
trapped by your own words,
    and caught by your own words,
then do this, my son, and deliver yourself,
    because you have come under your neighbor’s control.[b]
Go, humble yourself!
    Plead passionately with your neighbor!
Don’t allow yourself to sleep
    or even to close your eyes.
Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a hunter’s hand,[c]
    or like a bird from a fowler’s hand.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:1 Lit. have clapped your hands; i.e. have shaken hands
  2. Proverbs 6:3 Lit. into the hands of your neighbor
  3. Proverbs 6:5 So MT; LXX Syr Targ read from the hunter; or a noose

Against Pledges

My child, if you have pledged to your neighbor,
    if you have bound yourself[a] to the stranger,
if you are snared by the sayings of your mouth,
    if you are caught by the sayings of your mouth,
do this, then, my child, and save yourself,
    for you have come into the palm of your neighbor’s hand:[b]
    Go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbor.
Do not give sleep to your eyes,
    or slumber to your eyelids.
Save yourself like a gazelle from a hand,
    or like a bird from the hand of a fowler.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:1 Literally “palms of your hands”
  2. Proverbs 6:3 Literally “the palm of the hand of your neighbor”