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Lessons for Daily Life

My child,[a] if you have put up security for a friend’s debt
    or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger—
if you have trapped yourself by your agreement
    and are caught by what you said—
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.
Don’t put it off; do it now!
    Don’t rest until you do.
Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter,
    like a bird fleeing from a net.

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Footnotes

  1. 6:1 Hebrew My son.

Practical Warnings

My son, if you have become a (A)guarantor for your neighbor,
Have struck your [a]hands in pledge for a stranger,
If you have been snared with the words of your mouth,
Have been caught with the words of your mouth,
Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself;
Since you have come into the [b]hand of your neighbor,
Go, humble yourself, and badger your neighbor.
Give no (B)sleep to your eyes,
Nor slumber to your eyelids;
Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand
And like a (C)bird from the hand of the fowler.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:1 Lit palms
  2. Proverbs 6:3 Lit palm

15 There’s danger in putting up security for a stranger’s debt;
    it’s safer not to guarantee another person’s debt.

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15 If one becomes a (A)guarantor for a stranger, he will surely suffer,
But he who hates [a]striking hands in pledge is secure.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 11:15 Or being a guarantor

18 It’s poor judgment to guarantee another person’s debt
    or put up security for a friend.

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18 A man lacking a heart of wisdom (A)strikes his [a]hands in pledge
And becomes guarantor in the presence of his neighbor.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 17:18 Lit palms

16 Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.
    Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 20:16 An alternate reading in the Masoretic Text is for a promiscuous woman.

16 Take his garment when he becomes a guarantor for a stranger;
And for foreigners, hold him in pledge.

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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.

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26 Do not be among those who (A)strike [a]hands in pledge,
Among those who become guarantors for debts.
27 If you have nothing with which to pay,
Why should he (B)take your bed from under you?

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 22:26 Lit palms