6 My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor,
    have given your pledge for a stranger;
² if you are snared in the utterance of your lips,^[a]
    caught in the words of your mouth;
³ then do this, my son, and save yourself,
    for you have come into your neighbor’s power:
    go, hasten,^[b] and importune your neighbor.
⁴ Give your eyes no sleep
    and your eyelids no slumber;
⁵ save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,^[c]
    like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

¹⁵ He who gives surety for a stranger will smart for it,
    but he who hates suretyship is secure.

¹⁸ A man without sense gives a pledge,
    and becomes surety in the presence of his neighbor.

¹⁶ Take a man’s garment when he has given surety for a stranger,
    and hold him in pledge when he gives surety for foreigners.

²⁶ Be not one of those who give pledges,
    who become surety for debts.
²⁷ If you have nothing with which to pay,
    why should your bed be taken from under you?