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
Common English Bible
Wise advice
6 My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor
or shake hands in agreement with a stranger,
2 you will be trapped by your words;
you will be caught by your words.
3 Do this, my son, to get out of it,
for you have come under the control of your neighbor.
So go, humble yourself,[a] and pester your neighbor.
4 Don’t give sleep to your eyes
or slumber to your eyelids.
5 Get yourself free like a gazelle from a hunter,
like a bird from the hand of a fowler.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 6:3 Heb uncertain
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
Common English Bible
15 Guaranteeing the debt of a stranger brings big trouble,
but the one who refuses to shake hands will be secure.
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
Common English Bible
18 One with no sense shakes hands on a deal,
securing a loan for a friend.
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
Common English Bible
16 Take the garment of the person who secures a loan for a stranger;
take his pledge for a foreigner.
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
Common English Bible
26 Don’t shake hands to guarantee a loan.
27 If you can’t repay,
why should they be able to take your bed from 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.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible