Proverbs 22:26-27
New English Translation
26 Do not be one who strikes hands in pledge
or who puts up security for debts.
27 If you do not have enough to pay,
your bed[a] will be taken[b] right out from under you![c]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 22:27 tn The “bed” may be a metonymy of adjunct, meaning the garment that covers the bed (e.g., Exod 22:26). At any rate, it represents the individual’s last possession (like the English expression “the shirt off his back”).
- Proverbs 22:27 tn Heb “If you cannot pay, why should he take the bed from under you?” This rhetorical question is used to affirm the statement. The rhetorical interrogative לָמָּה (lammah, “why?”) appears in MT but not in the ancient versions; it may be in the Hebrew text by dittography.
- Proverbs 22:27 sn The third saying deals with rash vows: If people foolishly pledge what they have, they could lose everything (e.g., 6:1-5; 11:15; 17:18; 20:16; there is no Egyptian parallel).
Proverbs 22:26-27
Expanded Bible
26 Don’t ·promise [L shake hands] to pay what someone else owes,
and don’t guarantee anyone’s loan.
27 If you cannot pay the loan,
·your own bed may [L why should your own bed…?] be taken right out from under you.
Proverbs 27:13
New English Translation
13 Take a man’s[a] garment when he has given security for a stranger,
and hold him in pledge on behalf of a stranger.[b]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 27:13 tn Heb “his garment.”
- Proverbs 27:13 tn Or “for a strange (= adulterous) woman.” Cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT; NIV “a wayward woman.” The first noun זָר (zar) “stranger,” “foreigner” is masculine; the second term נָכְרִיָּה (nokhriyyah) “foreigner,” “stranger” is feminine, thus whether the stranger is a man or a woman. The terms do not have to mean a non-Israelite, just someone from outside the community and not well-known.sn This proverb is virtually identical to 20:16 which has a rare variant spelling of the initial imperative verb and has the masculine plural “strangers” as its Kethib reading, while matching 27:13 with the feminine singular “stranger” as its Qere reading.
Proverbs 27:13
Expanded Bible
13 Take the coat of someone who promises to pay a stranger’s loan,
and keep it until he pays what the ·stranger [L foreigner] owes.
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