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15 To guarantee loans for a stranger brings trouble,
    but there is safety in refusing to do so.

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18 It is senseless to give a pledge,
    to become surety for a neighbor.(A)

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Practical Admonitions

My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor,
    if you have bound yourself to another,[a](A)
you are snared by the utterance of your lips,[b]
    caught by the words of your mouth.
So do this, my child, and save yourself,
    for you have come into your neighbor’s power:
    go, hurry,[c] and plead with your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep
    and your eyelids no slumber;(B)
save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,[d]
    like a bird from the hand of the fowler.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 6.1 Or a stranger
  2. 6.2 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb the words of your mouth
  3. 6.3 Or humble yourself
  4. 6.5 Cn: Heb from the hand

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

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16 Take the garment of one who has given surety for a stranger;
    seize the pledge given as surety for foreigners.

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