Proverbs 6:1-5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Practical Admonitions
6 My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor,
if you have bound yourself to another,[a](A)
2 you are snared by the utterance of your lips,[b]
caught by the words of your mouth.
3 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.
4 Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;(B)
5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,[d]
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.(C)
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 11:15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 To guarantee loans for a stranger brings trouble,
but there is safety in refusing to do so.
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 17:18
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
18 It is senseless to give a pledge,
to become surety for a neighbor.(A)
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 20:16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
16 Take the garment of one who has given surety for a stranger;
seize the pledge given as surety for foreigners.
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 22:26-27
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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?
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.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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.
