Proverbs 6:1-35 NIV
Warnings Against Folly
1
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
if
you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
2you have been trapped by what you said,
ensnared
by the words of your mouth.
3So do
this, my son, to free yourself,
since
you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
and
give your neighbor no rest!
4Allow
no sleep to your eyes,
no
slumber to your eyelids.
5Free
yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a
bird from the snare of the fowler.
6Go to
the ant, you sluggard;
consider
its ways and be wise!
7It has
no commander,
no
overseer or ruler,
8yet it
stores its provisions in summer
and
gathers its food at harvest.
9How
long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When
will you get up from your sleep?
10A
little sleep, a little slumber,
a
little folding of the hands to rest—
11and
poverty will come on you like a thief
and
scarcity like an armed man.
12A
troublemaker and a villain,
who
goes about with a corrupt mouth,
13who
winks maliciously with his eye,
signals
with his feet
and
motions with his fingers,
14who
plots evil with deceit in his heart—
he
always stirs up conflict.
15Therefore
disaster will overtake him in an instant;
he will
suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.
16There
are six things the Lord hates,
seven
that are detestable to him:
17haughty
eyes,
a lying
tongue,
hands
that shed innocent blood,
18a heart
that devises wicked schemes,
feet
that are quick to rush into evil,
19a false
witness who pours out lies
and a
person who stirs up conflict in the community.
Warning Against Adultery
20My son,
keep your father’s command
and do
not forsake your mother’s teaching.
21Bind
them always on your heart;
fasten
them around your neck.
22When
you walk, they will guide you;
when you
sleep, they will watch over you;
when
you awake, they will speak to you.
23For
this command is a lamp,
this
teaching is a light,
and
correction and instruction
are the
way to life,
24keeping
you from your neighbor’s wife,
from
the smooth talk of a wayward woman.
25Do not
lust in your heart after her beauty
or let
her captivate you with her eyes.
26For a
prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread,
but
another man’s wife preys on your very life.
27Can a
man scoop fire into his lap
without
his clothes being burned?
28Can a
man walk on hot coals
without
his feet being scorched?
29So is
he who sleeps with another man’s wife;
no one
who touches her will go unpunished.
30People
do not despise a thief if he steals
to
satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
31Yet if
he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
though
it costs him all the wealth of his house.
32But a
man who commits adultery has no sense;
whoever
does so destroys himself.
33Blows
and disgrace are his lot,
and his
shame will never be wiped away.
34For
jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
and he
will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
35He will
not accept any compensation;
he will
refuse a bribe, however great it is.
Verse
1, 2
GOD’S
WORD TRANSLATION
“My son,
if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor or pledge yourself for a stranger
with a handshake, you are trapped by the words of your own mouth, caught
by your own promise.”
Surety
- The “pledge”," or “security for payment was the word was used in the
primitive trade transactions of the early Israelites.
In the warnings
against this suretyship, in the Book of Proverbs, we may trace the influence of
contact with the Phoenicians. The merchants of Tyre and Zidon seem to have
discovered the value of credit as an element of wealth. A man might obtain
goods, or escape the pressure of a creditor at an inconvenient season, or
obtain a loan on more favorable terms, by finding security.
To give such security might be one of the
kindest offices which one friend could render to another. Side by side,
however, with a legitimate system of credit there sprang up, as in later times,
a fraudulent counterfeit. Phoenician or Jewish money-lenders (the “stranger”) were ready to make their loans to
the spendthrift. He was equally ready to find a companion (the “friend”) who would become his surety.
It was merely a form, just
writing a few words, just “a clasping of the hands” in token that the
obligation was accepted, and that was all. It would be unfriendly to refuse.
And yet, as the teacher warns his hearers, there might be, in that moment of
careless weakness, the first link of a long chain of ignominy, galling,
fretting, wearing, depriving life of all its peace. The Jewish law of debt,
hard and stern like that of most ancient nations, was enforced against him in
all its rigor.
Money and land might
go, the very bed under him might be seized, and his garment torn from his back Proverbs 20:16; Proverbs 22:27, the older
and more lenient law Exodus 22:25-27 having
apparently fallen into disuse. He might be brought into a life-long bondage,
subject only to the possible relief of the year of jubilee, when the people
were religious enough to remember and observe it. His wives, his sons, his
daughters might be sharers in that slavery Nehemiah 5:3-5. It was
doubtful whether he could claim the privilege which under Exodus 21:2 belonged
to an Israelite slave that had been bought.
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