Proverbs 6

¹My son, if you have become surety to your neighbor,[#Unlike other instructions that begin with “my son,” this instruction does not urge the hearer to store up the father’s words as a means to wisdom, but only to avoid one practice—going surety for one’s neighbor. The warning is intensified by repetition of “neighbor” and “free yourself,” the mention of bodily organs, and the imagery of hunting. : lit., “struck your hands”; this was probably the legal method for closing a contract. To become surety meant intervening in favor of the insolvent debtor and assuming responsibility for the payment of the debt, either by obtaining it from the debtor or substituting oneself. Proverbs is strongly opposed to the practice (11:15; 17:18; 20:16; 22:26–27; 27:13) apparently because of the danger it poses to the freedom of the one providing surety.; #Prv 11:15; 22:26; Sir 8:13; 29:19.]

given your hand in pledge to another,

²You have been snared by the utterance of your lips,

caught by the words of your mouth;

³So do this, my son, to free yourself,

since you have fallen into your neighbor’s power:

Go, hurry, rouse your neighbor!

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes,

nor slumber to your eyelids;

⁵Free yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,

or like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, O sluggard,[#The sluggard or lazybones is a type in Proverbs, like the righteous and the wicked. Sometimes the opposite type to the sluggard is the diligent person. Other extended passages on the sluggard are 24:30–34 and 26:13–16. The malice of the type is not low physical energy but the refusal to act. To describe human types, Proverbs often uses comparisons from the animal world, e.g., 27:8 (bird); 28:1, 15 (lion); 30:18–19 (eagle, snake); 30:24–28 (ant, badger, locust, lizard).; #Prv 30:25.]

study her ways and learn wisdom;

⁷For though she has no chief,

no commander or ruler,

⁸She procures her food in the summer,

stores up her provisions in the harvest.

⁹How long, O sluggard, will you lie there?

when will you rise from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the arms to rest—

¹¹Then poverty will come upon you like a robber,

and want like a brigand.

¹²Scoundrels, villains, are they[#Proverbs uses types to make the point that certain ways of acting have inherent consequences. The typifying intensifies the picture. All the physical organs—mouth, eyes, feet, fingers—are at the service of evil. Cf. Rom 6:12–13: “Therefore, sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons of righteousness.”]

who deal in crooked talk.

¹³Shifty of eye,

feet ever moving,

pointing with fingers,

¹⁴They have perversity in their hearts,

always plotting evil,

sowing discord.

¹⁵Therefore their doom comes suddenly;

in an instant they are crushed beyond cure.

¹⁶There are six things the Lord hates,

yes, seven are an abomination to him;

¹⁷Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,[#The seven vices, symbolized for the most part by bodily organs, are pride, lying, murder, intrigue, readiness to do evil, false witness, and the stirring up of discord.]

hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸A heart that plots wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to run to evil,

¹⁹The false witness who utters lies,

and the one who sows discord among kindred.

²⁰Observe, my son, your father’s command,

and do not reject your mother’s teaching;

²¹Keep them fastened over your heart always,

tie them around your neck.

²²When you lie down they will watch over you,[#: Heb. has “she.” If this verse is not out of place, then the antecedent of “she” is command (v. 20), or perhaps wisdom.]

when you wake, they will share your concerns;

wherever you turn, they will guide you.

²³For the command is a lamp, and the teaching a light,

and a way to life are the reproofs that discipline,

²⁴Keeping you from another’s wife,

from the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.

²⁵Do not lust in your heart after her beauty,

do not let her captivate you with her glance!

²⁶For the price of a harlot

may be scarcely a loaf of bread,

But a married woman

is a trap for your precious life.

²⁷Can a man take embers into his bosom,[#There is a play on three words of similar sound, ’îsh , “man,” ’ishshâ , “woman,” and ’ēsh , “fire, embers.” The question, “Can a man ( ’îsh ) take embers ( ’ēsh ) into his bosom / and his garments not be burned?”, has a double meaning. “Into his bosom” has an erotic meaning as in the phrase “wife of one’s bosom” (Dt 13:6; 28:54; Sir 9:1). Hence one will destroy one’s garments, which symbolize one’s public position, by taking fire/another’s wife into one’s bosom.]

and his garments not be burned?

²⁸Or can a man walk on live coals,

and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So with him who sleeps with another’s wife—

none who touches her shall go unpunished.

³⁰Thieves are not despised

if out of hunger they steal to satisfy their appetite.

³¹Yet if caught they must pay back sevenfold,

yield up all the wealth of their house.

³²But those who commit adultery have no sense;

those who do it destroy themselves.

³³They will be beaten and disgraced,[#The nature of the husband’s vengeance is disputed, some believing it is simply a physical beating whereas others hold it is public and involves the death penalty because Lv 20:20 and Dt 22:22 demand the death penalty.]

and their shame will not be wiped away;

³⁴For passion enrages the husband,

he will have no pity on the day of vengeance;

³⁵He will not consider any restitution,

nor be satisfied by your many bribes.