Proverbs 6:1

My son, if thou be surety for thy friend,.... To another; hast engaged thyself by promise or bond, or both, to pay a debt for him, if he is not able, or if required; or hast laid thyself under

My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Proverbs 6:1-35.-Warning against suretiship (Proverbs 6:1-5); against indolence, by the example of the ant

CHAPTER 6 A dehortation against suretiship, . The danger of it, ; and the way of delivery, . Sluggards reproved by a similitude of the ant, . The carriage of the wicked described, ; and his sudden ruin, . Of seven things which are displeasing to God, . The benefits of keeping the commandments, . The mischief of adultery, . Its evil consequences, . Surety, to wit, rashly, without considering for whom or how far thou dost oblige thyself, or how thou shalt discharge the debt, if occasion require it. Otherwise suretiship in some cases may be not only lawful, but an act of justice, and prudence, and charity. See 43:9 . Or, to (as this prefix most commonly signifies) a friend. Stricken thy hand; obliged thyself by giving thy hand, or joining thy hands with another man’ s, as the custom then was in such cases; of which see 22:26. With a stranger; with the creditor, whom he calls a stranger, because the usurers in Israel, who lent money to others for their necessary occasions, upon condition of paying use for it, were either heathens, or were reputed as bad as heathens, because this practice was forbidden by God’ s law, . Or, to or for a stranger; for here is the same prefix which is rendered for in the former clause. And so he may imply, that whether a man be surety to or for a friend, or to or for a stranger, the case and course to be used is much of the same kind.

Proverbs 6:1 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, [if] thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,Ver. 1. My son, if thou be surety.] The wise man, having exhorted his son to marry, rather than burn, and to nourish a family, rather than to haunt harlots’ houses, to the end that he may show himself a good economic, and provide for the comfortable subsistence of wife and children, he bids him here beware - (1.) Of unadvised suretyship; (2.) Of idleness, two great enemies to thrift, without which there can be no good house kept. The royalty of Solomon could not have consisted, for all his riches, without forecast and frugality.

VI. (i). Ninth Discourse:—Against Suretyship (Proverbs 6:1-5). (1) If thou be surety for thy friend.—When the Mosaic Law was instituted, commerce had not been taken up by the Israelites, and the lending of money on interest for its employment in trade was a thing unknown. The only occasion for loans would be to supply the immediate necessities of the borrower, and the exaction of interest under such circumstances would be productive of great hardship, involving the loss of land and even personal freedom, as the insolvent debtor and his family became the slaves of the creditor (Nehemiah 5:1-5). To prevent these evils, the lending of money on interest to any poor Israelite was strictly forbidden (Leviticus 25:35-37); the people were enjoined to be liberal, and lend for nothing in such cases. But at the time of Solomon, when the commerce of the Israelites had enormously developed, and communications were opened with Spain and Egypt and (possibly) with India and Ceylon, while caravans penetrated beyond the Euphrates, then the lending of money on interest for employment in trade most probably became frequent, and suretyship also, the pledging of a man’s own credit to enable his friend to procure a loan. And when the wealth that accompanied this development of the national resources had brought luxury in its train, borrowing and suretyship would be employed for less worthy purposes, to supply the young nobles of Jerusalem with money for their extravagance. Hence possibly the emphatic language of the text and Proverbs 20:16; Proverbs 27:13. Stricken thy hand.—That is, as we should say, “shaken hands on the bargain.” With a stranger.—Or rather, for another, i.e., thy friend.

CHAPTER VI Exhortations against becoming surety for others, 1-5; against idleness, from the example of the ant, 6-11; description of a worthless person, 12-15; seven things hateful to God, 16-19; the benefits of instruction, 20-23; farther exhortations against bad women, and especially against adultery, 24-33; what may be expected from jealousy, 34, 35. NOTES ON CHAP. VI Verse 1. If thou be surety for thy friend] לרעך lereacha, for thy neighbour; i.e., any person. If thou pledge thyself in behalf of another, thou takest the burden off him, and placest it on thine own shoulders; and when he knows he has got one to stand between him and the demands of law and justice, he will feel little responsibility; his spirit of exertion will become crippled, and listlessness as to the event will be the consequence. His own character will suffer little; his property nothing, for his friend bears all the burden: and perhaps the very person for whom he bore this burden treats him with neglect; and, lest the restoration of the pledge should be required, will avoid both the sight and presence of his friend. Give what thou canst; but, except in extreme cases, be surety for no man. Striking or shaking hands when the mouth had once made the promise, was considered as the ratification of the engagement; and thus the man became ensnared with the words of his mouth.

Eleventh Address. Chap. 6. Proverbs 6:1-5. The Surety“From the solemn principle announced at the close of the last chapter (Proverbs 6:23) the teacher passes … to illustrate the truth by three examples, that of the Surety (Proverbs 6:1-5), that of the Sluggard (Proverbs 6:6-11), and that of the Worthless Man (Proverbs 6:12-19). And then because the horrors of impurity are the most striking and terrible instance of all, this subject coming up again at Proverbs 6:20, like the dark ground tone of the picture, finally runs into the long and detailed description of ch. 7.” Horton, ch. vii. p. 79.

Surety - The “pledge,” or security for payment, which, for example, David was to bring back from his brothers 1 Samuel 17:18. So the word was used in the primitive trade transactions of the early Israelites.

1, 2. If thou be surety — It is probable, as suggested by several critics, that àí, (im,) if, is to be mentally carried forward, not only to the second clause of the first verse, but also to the two