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Proverbs 5:10
New English Translation
Proverbs 5:10
New English Translation
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Footnotes
- Proverbs 5:10 tn Heb “eat their fill of” or “become sated from” your strength.
- Proverbs 5:10 tn The word כֹּחַ (koakh, “strength”) refers to what laborious toil would produce (so a metonymy of cause). Everything that this person worked for could become the property for others to enjoy.
- Proverbs 5:10 tn “labor, painful toil.”
- Proverbs 5:10 tn The term “benefit” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
Proverbs 5:10
Common English Bible
Proverbs 5:10
Common English Bible
10 Otherwise, strangers will sap your strength,
and your hard work will end up in a foreigner’s house.
Proverbs 6:1
New English Translation
Proverbs 6:1
New English Translation
Admonitions and Warnings against Dangerous and Destructive Acts[a]
6 My child,[b] if you have made a pledge[c] for your neighbor,[d]
if[e] you have become a guarantor[f] for a stranger,[g]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 6:1 sn The chapter advises release from foolish indebtedness (1-5), admonishes avoiding laziness (6-11), warns of the danger of poverty (9-11) and deviousness (12-15), lists conduct that the Lord hates (16-19), and warns about immorality (20-35).
- Proverbs 6:1 tn Heb “my son” (likewise in vv. 3, 20).
- Proverbs 6:1 sn It was fairly common for people to put up some kind of financial security for someone else, that is, to underwrite another’s debts. But the pledge in view here was foolish because the debtor was someone who was not well known (זָר, zar). The one who pledged security for this one was simply gullible.
- Proverbs 6:1 tn A neighbor (רֵעַ, reaʿ) does not mean a person who lives next door or on your block, but someone whom you are brought into contact with, or live or work with, because of life’s circumstances. Since this person is also called a stranger (זָר, zar) at the end of the verse, “neighbor” should be understood in the broadest sense of a social contact.
- Proverbs 6:1 tn The conjunction “if” does not appear in the Hebrew text. It applies from the previous line and is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.
- Proverbs 6:1 tn Heb “struck your hands”; NIV “have struck hands in pledge”; NASB “have given a pledge.” The guarantee of a pledge was signaled by a handshake (e.g., 11:15; 17:18; 22:26).
- Proverbs 6:1 tn Heb “stranger.” The term זָר (zar, “stranger”) can refer to a stranger who is outside the family, a non-Israelite foreigner, or an unauthorized or prohibited person (like the strange/prohibited woman in Prov 2:16 and 5:3). The person is either not well known or off-limits and represents a high financial risk and/or an undesirable association.
Proverbs 6:1
Common English Bible
Proverbs 6:1
Common English Bible
Wise advice
6 My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor
or shake hands in agreement with a stranger,
Proverbs 11:15
New English Translation
Proverbs 11:15
New English Translation
15 The one who has put up security for a stranger[a] will surely have trouble,[b]
but whoever avoids[c] shaking hands[d] is secure.[e]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 11:15 sn The “stranger” could refer to a person from another country or culture, as it often does, but it could also refer to an unknown Israelite, with the idea that the individual stands outside the known and respectable community.
- Proverbs 11:15 tn The sentence begins with the Niphal imperfect and the cognate (רַע־יֵרוֹעַ, raʿ yeroaʿ), stressing that whoever does this “will certainly suffer hurt.” The hurt in this case will be financial responsibility for a bad risk.
- Proverbs 11:15 tn Heb “hates.” The term שֹׂנֵא (soneʾ) means “to reject,” and here “to avoid.” The participle is substantival, functioning as the subject of the clause. The next participle, תֹקְעִים (toqeʿim, “striking hands”), is its object, telling what is hated. The third participle בּוֹטֵחַ (boteach, “is secure”) functions verbally.
- Proverbs 11:15 tn Heb “striking.” The term “hands” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied. The imagery here is shaking hands to seal a contract. It does not refer to greeting people with a handshake or exclude all business agreements.
- Proverbs 11:15 tn The participle בּוֹטֵחַ (boteakh) means to “be secure, confident, safe, or care free.” In this verse it applies specifically to the issue of putting up security for another, not all the rest of life. A person who avoids this bad decision has no worries about its consequences.
Proverbs 11:15
Common English Bible
Proverbs 11:15
Common English Bible
15 Guaranteeing the debt of a stranger brings big trouble,
but the one who refuses to shake hands will be secure.
Proverbs 20:16
New English Translation
Proverbs 20:16
New English Translation
16 Take a man’s[a] garment[b] when he has given security for a stranger,[c]
and hold him[d] in pledge on behalf of strangers.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 20:16 tn Heb “his garment.”
- Proverbs 20:16 sn Taking a garment was the way of holding someone responsible to pay debts. In fact, the garment was the article normally taken for security (Exod 22:24-26; Deut 24:10-13). People normally had few changes of clothes, so a garment represented giving a necessity as collateral. (In the case of a poor person the cloak should be returned for the nighttime to keep them warm.)
- Proverbs 20:16 tc The Kethib has the masculine plural form, נָכְרִים (nokhrim), suggesting a reading “strangers.” But the Qere has the feminine form נָכְרִיָּה (nokhriyyah), “strange woman” or “another man’s wife” (e.g., 27:13). The parallelism would suggest “strangers” is the correct reading, although theories have been put forward for the interpretation of “strange woman” (see below).tn M. Dahood argues that the cloak was taken in pledge for a harlot (cf. NIV “a wayward woman”). Two sins would then be committed: taking a cloak and going to a prostitute (“To Pawn One’s Cloak,” Bib 42 [1961]: 359-66; also Snijders, “The Meaning of זָר,” 85-86). In the MT the almost identical proverb in 27:13 has a feminine singular form here.sn The one for whom the pledge is taken is called “a stranger” and “foreign.” These two words do not necessarily mean that the individual or individuals are non-Israelite—just outside the community and not well known.
- Proverbs 20:16 tn Or “hold it” (so NIV, NCV).
Proverbs 20:16
Common English Bible
Proverbs 20:16
Common English Bible
16 Take the garment of the person who secures a loan for a stranger;
take his pledge for a foreigner.
New English Translation (NET)
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