Proverbs Chapter 6

From The Open Bible Project

6:1 My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;

6:2 You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.

• (a) He forbids us not to become surety one for another, according to the rule of charity, but that we consider for whom and after what sort, so that the creditor may not be defrauded.

6:3 Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, seeing you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.

6:4 Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.

6:5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

6:6 Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;

• (b) If the word of God cannot instruct you, learn from the little ant to labour for yourself and not to burden others.

6:7 which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

6:8 provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.

6:9 How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

6:10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

• (c) He expresses the nature of the sluggards, who though they sleep long, yet never have enough, but always seek opportunity for more.

6:11 so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.

• (d) That is, suddenly, and when you do not look for it.
• (e) It will come in such sort, as you are not able to resist it.

6:12 A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth;

• (f) He shows to what inconvenience the idle persons and sluggards come, by calling them unthrifty, or the men of Belial, and slanderous.

6:13 who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers;

• (g) Thus all his gesture tends to wickedness,

6:14 in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.

6:15 Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

6:16 There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:

6:17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood;

6:18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

• (h) Meaning, the raging affections, which carry a man away in such sort that he cannot tell what he does.

6:19 a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

6:20 My son, keep your father's commandment, and don't forsake your mother's teaching.

6:21 Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.

• (i) (Proverbs 3:3).

6:22 When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.

6:23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

• (k) By the commandment, he means the word of God; and by the instruction, the preaching and declaration of the same, which is committed to the Church.
• (l) And reprehensions when the word is preached bring us to life.

6:24 to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife's tongue.

6:25 Don't lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.

• (m) With her wanton looks and gesture.

6:26 For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

6:27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?

• (n) Meaning, that she will never cease till she has brought you to begging, and then seek your destruction.

6:28 Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

6:29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

6:30 Men don't despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry:

• (o) He does not reprove theft, showing that it is not as abominable as whoredom, for theft can be restored, but adultery is permanent, and death by the law of God.
• (p) Meaning, for necessity.

6:31 but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.

6:32 He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

6:33 He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.

• (q) That is, death appointed by the Law.

6:34 For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won't spare in the day of vengeance.

• (r) He shows that man by nature seeks the death of he that has abused his wife, and so concludes that neither God’s law nor the law of nature admits any ransom for the adultery.

6:35 He won't regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.