Proverbs 6

My son, suppose you have promised to pay what your neighbor owes. Suppose you have shaken hands to guarantee a stranger's debt.

1My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,

NoteStriking or shaking hands was the formal gesture that sealed a legal guarantee, like signing a contract today. To be "surety" was to make yourself personally liable for someone else's debt: if the borrower defaulted, the creditor could seize the guarantor's property, and in the ancient Near East could seize the guarantor himself or his children as debt slaves. The warning is about a real and ruinous financial risk, not about unfriendliness. KJV "friend" here translates a word meaning neighbor, associate, the other party, not necessarily someone close to you.

2Then you are trapped by what you said. The words of your own mouth have caught you.

2Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

3So do this, my son, to get yourself free, since you have put yourself in your neighbor's power: go to him, put your pride aside, and press your plea with him.

3Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.

NoteThe Hebrew verb behind "humble thyself" is uncertain; it may mean to prostrate yourself, or to stamp about, or to make yourself a doormat. "Make sure thy friend" means to press, badger, or importune the other party, to keep pushing until he releases you from the pledge.

4Do not let yourself fall asleep. Do not even let your eyes close.

4Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.

5Get yourself free the way a deer escapes a hunter's hand, the way a bird escapes the trapper's hand.

5Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

NoteThe KJV's "roe" is a gazelle, a small swift antelope, not the European roe deer. A "fowler" is a bird catcher, who worked with nets, snares and limed twigs rather than a weapon.

6Go look at the ant, you lazy person. Watch how it works, and get some sense.

6Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

7It has no commander, no supervisor, and no ruler over it,

7Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

8yet it stores up what it needs during the summer and gathers its food at harvest time.

8Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

9How long will you lie there, lazy person? When are you going to get up from your sleep?

9How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

10A little sleep, a little dozing, a little folding of the hands to rest,

10Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

11and poverty will come at you like a robber on the road, and what you lack will hit you like an armed man.

11So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

NoteThe KJV's "one that travelleth" renders a word for someone who roams or prowls, a vagrant or highwayman. "An armed man" is literally "a man of a shield." The picture is of poverty arriving like a mugger on the road: sudden, and not something you can argue with.

12A worthless person, an evil man, goes around saying twisted things.

12A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

Note"Naughty person" in 1611 English meant a thoroughly bad or worthless man, far stronger than the modern word. The Hebrew is literally "a man of belial," an idiom for a good-for-nothing or a scoundrel. "Froward" is old English for crooked or twisted.

13He winks his eyes, makes signals with his feet, and points with his fingers.

13He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

NoteWinking, scuffing signals with the feet, and pointing with the fingers were recognized gestures of secret communication and covert mockery, the body language of a man running a scam or signaling to an accomplice while his mouth says something else.

14His heart is crooked. He is always planning to do harm. He keeps stirring up fights.

14Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

15So disaster will hit him all at once. In a moment he will be broken, and nothing will fix it.

15Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

16There are six things the LORD hates, seven that he finds disgusting:

16These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

Note"Six things... yea, seven" is a standard Hebrew way of building a list, not a correction or a miscount. The pattern of naming one number and then the next builds suspense and throws the weight onto the final item, here, the one who stirs up conflict among kinsmen. "Abomination" translates a word for something ritually or morally revolting, the reaction of physical disgust.

17eyes full of pride, a tongue that lies, hands that kill innocent people,

17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

NoteThe list that follows runs through the parts of the body (eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet, and then the mouth of a false witness) as a way of covering the whole person. "A proud look" is literally "haughty eyes," the raised, looking-down-on-you gaze.

18a heart that plans evil schemes, feet that run quickly to do harm,

18An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

19a witness who lies in court, and a person who stirs up fights among brothers.

19A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

NoteIsraelite trials had no police, forensic evidence or public prosecutor; cases were decided at the town gate on the word of witnesses. A witness who lied could therefore get an innocent person executed, and the law prescribed that the false witness suffer whatever penalty he had tried to bring on the accused.

20My son, keep your father's command, and do not turn away from your mother's teaching.

20My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

21Tie them onto your heart and keep them there. Fasten them around your neck.

21Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

NoteBinding words on the heart and tying them around the neck draws on two familiar images: a valuable ornament or amulet worn where everyone can see it, and the practice of physically fastening written words to the body as a reminder. The point is constant possession, not decoration.

22When you walk, they will lead you. When you lie down to sleep, they will watch over you. When you wake up, they will talk with you.

22When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

23For the command is a lamp, the teaching is a light, and correction that trains you is the road to life.

23For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

24They will keep you away from the evil woman, away from the smooth, flattering talk of another man's wife.

24To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

NoteThe KJV's "strange woman" does not mean odd or unknown. The Hebrew means a woman outside the bounds, outside your own marriage, and in this chapter specifically another man's wife, as verse 29 makes explicit.

25Do not crave her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with a look from her eyes.

25Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

26For a prostitute can bring a man down to his last piece of bread, and another man's wife hunts for his very life.

26For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.

NoteThis verse is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew and has been read two ways: that the fee of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, while an adulteress costs a man his life; or that a prostitute reduces a man to his last loaf. The contrast in either reading is between a cheap transaction and a fatal one.

27Can a man carry fire against his chest and not burn his clothes?

27Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

28Can a man walk on hot coals and not burn his feet?

28Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

29It is the same for the man who sleeps with his neighbor's wife. No one who touches her will go unpunished.

29So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

Note"Goeth in to" is a standard Hebrew euphemism for sexual intercourse. Under Israelite law adultery was a capital offense for both parties, which is why the following verses treat it as unfixable in a way that theft is not.

30People do not look down on a thief if he steals because he is hungry and needs to eat.

30Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

31Yet if he is caught, he has to pay back seven times what he took. He has to hand over everything he owns.

31But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

NoteIsraelite law required a thief to repay double, or four- or fivefold for a slaughtered ox or sheep; "sevenfold" here is not a legal figure but the language of complete, ruinous repayment. A thief who could not pay could be sold to cover the debt. The point of the comparison is that even the worst outcome for a thief is a payment, a settled, closed account.

32But the man who commits adultery with a woman has no sense. Whoever does it destroys himself.

32But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

33He will get wounds and shame, and the disgrace against his name will never be wiped away.

33A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

Note"A wound" likely means literal beating, the physical retaliation of the wronged husband and his family. "Reproach" is public disgrace: a permanent loss of standing in a small community where reputation was a man's working capital.

34For jealousy makes a husband furious, and he will show no mercy on the day he takes revenge.

34For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

35He will not accept any payment to settle it. No amount of gifts will make him let it go.

35He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.

Note"Ransom" translates a legal term for a payment accepted in place of a penalty, money that bought a guilty man out of the punishment he was owed. Israelite law allowed such a payment in some cases, but not for offenses against a marriage; and here the wronged husband, who would be the one to accept it, will not.