Proverbs 6:1 - Exposition

The contents of this section are not to be taken so much as an absolute unqualified prohibition of suretyship as counsel directed against the inconsiderate and rash undertaking of such an obligation. There were some occasions on which becoming surety for another was demanded by the laws of charity and prudence, and when it was not inconsistent with the humane precepts of the Mosaic Law as enunciated in Le Proverbs 19:19 . In other passages of our book the writer of the Proverbs lays down maxims which would clearly countenance the practice ( Proverbs 14:21 ; Proverbs 17:17 ; Proverbs 18:24 ; Proverbs 27:10 ), and in the apocryphal writings the practice is encouraged, if not enjoined (Ec Proverbs 29:14 ; Proverbs 8:13 ). Notwithstanding this limitation, however, it is observable that suretyship is almost invariably spoken of in terms of condemnation, and the evil consequences which it entailed on the surety may be the reason why it is so frequently alluded to. The teacher refers to the subject in the following passages: here; Proverbs 11:15 : Proverbs 17:18 ; Proverbs 22:26 ; Proverbs 20:16 ; Proverbs 27:13 . My son . On this address, see Proverbs 2:1 ; Proverbs 3:1 , Proverbs 3:17 . If thou be surety (Hebrew, im-aravta ); literally, if thou hast become surety ; LXX ; ἐάν ἐγγύσῃ ; Vulgate, si spoponderis. What the teacher counsels in the present instance is that, if by inadvertence a person has become surety, he should by the most strenuous endeavours prevail on his friend to free him from the bond. The Hebrew verb arav is properly "to mix," and then signifies "to become surety" in the sense of interchanging with another and so taking his place. The frequent mention of suretyship in the Proverbs is alluded to above. The first recorded instances are those where Judah offers to become surety for Benjamin, first to Israel ( Genesis 43:9 ), and secondly to Joseph ( Genesis 44:33 ). It is singular that it is only once alluded to in the Book of Job, where Job says, "Lay down now, put me in surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?" ( Job 17:3 ); and once only, and that doubtfully, in the whole of the Mosaic writings, in the phrase tesummat yad, i.e. giving or striking the hand in the case of perjury (Le Job 6:2 ). The psalmist refers to it in the words, "Be surety for thy servant for good" ( Psalms 119:122 ). It is spoken of twice in Isaiah ( Isaiah 38:14 ; Isaiah 36:8 ), once in Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 27:27 ) and in Nehemiah ( Nehemiah 5:3 ), and the cognate noun, arrabon, "the pledge," security for payment, is met with in Genesis 38:17 and 1 Samuel 17:18 . These scattered notices in the Old Testament show that the practice was always in existence, while the more frequent notices in the Proverbs refer to a condition of society where extended commercial transactions had apparently made it a thing of daily occurrence, and a source of constant danger. In the New Testament one instance of suretyship is found, when St. Paul offers to become surety to Philemon for Onesimus ( Philemon 1:19 ). But in the language of the New Testament, the purely commercial meaning of the word is transmuted into a spiritual one. The gift of the Spirit is regarded as the arrabon, ὀρραβὼν , "the pledge," the earnest of the Christian believer's acceptance with God ( 2 Corinthians 1:22 ; 2 Corinthians 5:5 ; Ephesians 1:14 ). For thy friend; Hebrew, l'reeka. The Hebrew reeh, more usually rea, is "the companion or friend," and in this ease obviously the debtor for whom one has become surety. The word reappears in Philemon 1:3 . The לְ ( le ) prefixed to reeh is the dativus commodi. So Delitzsch and others. If not in the original, but rightly inserted. Thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger (Hebrew, taka'ta lazzar kapeyka ); properly, thou hast stricken thy hand for a stranger. The analogous use of le ( לְ ) in lazzar determines this rendering. As in the corresponding l'reeyka, the לְ ( le ) indicates the person for whose benefit the suretyship is undertaken, i.e. the debtor, and not the person with whom the symbolical act is performed, i.e. the creditor. Compare the following passages, though the construction with לְ is wanting: "He that is surety for a stranger" ( Proverbs 11:15 ); "Take his garment that is surety for a stranger" ( Proverbs 20:16 and Proverbs 27:13 ). "The stranger," zar, is not an alien, or one belonging to another nationality, but simply one extraneous to one's self, and so equivalent to akher, "another." The meaning, therefore, seems to be, "If thou hast entered into a bond for one with whom thou art but slightly acquainted." Others (Wordsworth, Plumptre), however, take zar as representing the foreign money lender. The phrase, "to strike the hand," taka kaph, or simply "to strike," taka, describes the symbolical act which accompanied the contract. Taka is properly "to drive," like the Latin defigere, and hence "to strike," and indicates the sharp sound with which the hands were brought into contact. The act no doubt was accomplished before witnesses, and the hand which was stricken was that of the creditor, who thereby received assurance that the responsibility of the debtor was undertaken by the surety. The "striking of the hand" as indicating the completion of a contract is illustrated by the author of the 'Kamoos' (quoted by Lee, on Job 17:3 ), who says, "He struck or clapped to him a sale … he struck his hand in a sale, or on his hand … he struck his ow hand upon the hand of him, and this is among the necessary (transactions) of sale." So among Western nations the giving of the band has been always regarded as a pledge of bona fides. Thus Menelaus demands of Helena, ἐπὶ τοῖσδε νῦν δεξιὰς ἐμῆς θίγε , "Touch my right hand now on these conditions," i.e. in attestation that you accept them. In purely verbal agreements it is the custom in the present day for the parties to clasp the hand. A further example may be found in the plighting of troth in the Marriage Service.