Proverbs 6:1-5
New Living Translation
Lessons for Daily Life
6 My child,[a] if you have put up security for a friend’s debt
or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger—
2 if you have trapped yourself by your agreement
and are caught by what you said—
3 follow my advice and save yourself,
for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy.
Now swallow your pride;
go and beg to have your name erased.
4 Don’t put it off; do it now!
Don’t rest until you do.
5 Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter,
like a bird fleeing from a net.
Footnotes
- 6:1 Hebrew My son.
Proverbs 6:1-5
International Standard Version
The Folly of Guaranteeing Loans
6 My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor,
if you have agreed to a deal[a] with a stranger,
2 trapped by your own words,
and caught by your own words,
3 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!
4 Don’t allow yourself to sleep
or even to close your eyes.
5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a hunter’s hand,[c]
or like a bird from a fowler’s hand.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 6:1 Lit. have clapped your hands; i.e. have shaken hands
- Proverbs 6:3 Lit. into the hands of your neighbor
- Proverbs 6:5 So MT; LXX Syr Targ read from the hunter; or a noose
Proverbs 11:15
New Living Translation
15 There’s danger in putting up security for a stranger’s debt;
it’s safer not to guarantee another person’s debt.
Proverbs 11:15
International Standard Version
15 Securing a loan for a stranger will bring suffering,
but by refusing to do so, one remains safe.
Proverbs 17:18
New Living Translation
18 It’s poor judgment to guarantee another person’s debt
or put up security for a friend.
Proverbs 17:18
International Standard Version
Footnotes
- Proverbs 17:18 Lit. heart
- Proverbs 17:18 Lit. sense strikes the palm
Proverbs 20:16
New Living Translation
16 Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.
Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.[a]
Footnotes
- 20:16 An alternate reading in the Masoretic Text is for a promiscuous woman.
Proverbs 20:16
International Standard Version
16 Take the garment of anyone who puts up collateral for a stranger;
hold it in pledge if he does it for an unfamiliar woman.
Proverbs 22:26-27
New Living Translation
26 Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt
or put up security for someone else.
27 If you can’t pay it,
even your bed will be snatched from under you.
Proverbs 22:26-27
International Standard Version
26 Don’t be one of those who make promises
to guarantee loans for debts.
27 If you don’t have the ability to pay,
why should your very bed be taken from under you?
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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