Add parallel Print Page Options

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)

Read full chapter

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

Financial Entanglements

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor[a]
or entered into an agreement with[b] a stranger,[c](A)
you have been trapped by the words of your lips[d]
ensnared by the words of your mouth.
Do this, then, my son, and free yourself,
for you have put yourself in your neighbor’s power:
Go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor.
Don’t give sleep to your eyes
or slumber to your eyelids.(B)
Escape like a gazelle from a hunter,[e]
like a bird from a fowler’s trap.[f](C)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:1 Or friend
  2. Proverbs 6:1 Lit or shaken hands for or with
  3. Proverbs 6:1 The Hb word for stranger can refer to a foreigner, an Israelite outside one’s family, or simply to another person.
  4. Proverbs 6:2 Lit mouth
  5. Proverbs 6:5 Lit hand
  6. Proverbs 6:5 Lit hand

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

Read full chapter

15 If someone puts up security for a stranger,
he will suffer for it,(A)
but the one who hates such agreements is protected.

Read full chapter

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

Read full chapter

18 One without sense enters an agreement[a]
and puts up security for his friend.(A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 17:18 Lit sense shakes hands

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

Read full chapter

16 Take his garment,[a]
for he has put up security for a stranger;
get collateral if it is for foreigners.(A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 20:16 A debtor’s outer garment was held as collateral.

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?

Read full chapter

26 Don’t be one of those who enter agreements,[a]
who put up security for loans.(A)
27 If you have no money to pay,
even your bed will be taken from under you.(B)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 22:26 Lit who shakes hands