Commentary - Proverbs 6:1-5

Bird's-eye view

In this opening section of the sixth chapter, Solomon gives his son a series of intensely practical warnings. The first, and the subject of these five verses, is a dire warning against the practice of becoming surety for another man's debt. This is not a prohibition against generosity or charity, but rather a sharp rebuke of the folly of co-signing, of putting your own name and assets on the line for the obligations of another. The wisdom here is not just financial, but deeply theological. It concerns stewardship, the power of the tongue, the necessity of humility, and the desperate urgency required to escape a self-made trap. The passage lays out the problem (vv. 1-2), and then prescribes a frantic, humbling, and immediate solution (vv. 3-5).

Outline

The Folly of Surety

The central issue here is surety, or in modern terms, co-signing a loan. To strike hands was the ancient equivalent of signing on the dotted line. You are making yourself legally responsible for the debts of another. The Bible views this as an act of profound foolishness for several reasons. First, it presumes upon the future, a future that belongs only to God (Jas. 4:13-15). You do not know if your neighbor will be able to pay, and you do not know if you will be able to pay on his behalf. Second, it is a failure of stewardship. God has entrusted you with resources to care for your own household (1 Tim. 5:8), and to entangle those resources in the uncertain ventures of another is to manage them poorly. Third, it creates a form of slavery. The borrower is servant to the lender (Prov. 22:7), and by becoming surety, you have voluntarily placed yourself under that same yoke. This is distinct from charity; you are to give freely to a brother in need. But you are not to underwrite his speculative ventures with money you do not have.

Commentary

Proverbs 6:1

My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor, Have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,

The address is paternal and direct: "My son." This is covenantal instruction, passing wisdom from one generation to the next. The "if" sets up a hypothetical, but one that is all too common. To "become a guarantor" or "surety" is to pledge your own assets as collateral for someone else's debt. The second clause, "struck your hands in pledge for a stranger," intensifies the warning. It is one level of folly to do this for a neighbor you know well, but it is madness to do it for a "stranger," someone whose character, work ethic, and reliability are unknown to you. The striking of hands was a formal, binding agreement. This is a man who has made a solemn, legally enforceable promise, and Solomon is about to tell him that he has walked directly into a hunter's snare.

Proverbs 6:2

If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, Have been caught with the words of your mouth,

The trap is not external; it is self-imposed. The agent of your downfall was your own tongue. The repetition drives the point home: you are "snared" and "caught." There is no ambiguity. The words you spoke, perhaps in a moment of emotional generosity or prideful confidence, have now become the bars of your cage. This is a consistent theme in Proverbs and throughout Scripture. The tongue has the power of life and death (Prov. 18:21). A man is defined by his words, and here, he is imprisoned by them. He made a promise, and in God's economy, promises matter. The snare is the obligation created by his own vow. He has given his word, and now his word has taken him captive.

Proverbs 6:3

Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and badger your neighbor.

The instruction is immediate and active. "Do this then...and deliver yourself." You got yourself into this mess; you must get yourself out. Notice, the responsibility is not shifted. You cannot wait for circumstances to change or for your neighbor to prosper. You are now "in the hand of your neighbor," meaning you are at his mercy, subject to his financial decisions. The remedy has two parts. First, "Go, humble yourself." This requires swallowing your pride. You must go to the man to whom you made the pledge and admit your rashness. You must confess your folly and plead to be released from the obligation. Second, "badger your neighbor." The Hebrew here implies persistence, almost to the point of annoyance. This is not a polite letter. It is an urgent, repeated, insistent appeal. You are to press him, to importune him, to give him no rest until he lets you out of the agreement you foolishly made.

Proverbs 6:4

Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids;

The urgency is ratcheted up to the highest level. This is not a task for tomorrow's to-do list. This is a crisis that demands immediate, sleepless attention. Procrastination is not an option. The image is of a man whose house is on fire. He does not finish his dinner or decide to get a good night's rest first. He acts now. This is the kind of energy we are to have when we find ourselves ensnared by our own foolishness or sin. Repentance is not a leisurely activity. Deliverance is not to be postponed. When you realize you are in the trap, you are to devote all your energy, right now, to getting out.

Proverbs 6:5

Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Solomon concludes with two powerful similes from the natural world. A gazelle caught by a predator or a bird trapped in a fowler's net does not calmly assess the situation. It does not weigh its options. It struggles, it thrashes, it fights for its life with every ounce of its being. This is the portrait of desperation. This is the mindset the son is to have. He is to see his financial entanglement not as an inconvenience, but as a mortal threat. He must fight for his freedom with the frantic energy of a trapped animal. The Christian life requires this kind of spiritual violence at times, a recognition that sin and folly are not pets to be managed but mortal enemies to be escaped.

Application

The immediate application is straightforward: do not co-sign loans. Govern your financial affairs with prudence and wisdom, recognizing that all you have is a stewardship from God. Do not presume upon the future, and do not yoke yourself to the uncertain obligations of others.

But the theological application runs deeper. We are all born snared by the words of our first father, Adam. We are caught in a debt we cannot pay. Our only hope of deliverance is that another, the Lord Jesus Christ, willingly became surety for us. He put Himself in our place and paid the debt in full. He did not owe it, but He paid it on our behalf. Our response, then, should be one of urgent, desperate faith. We are to flee to Him like a gazelle from the hunter. When we are caught in our own sins and foolish pledges, we must humble ourselves immediately, not before our neighbor, but before our God, and plead for the deliverance that Christ has already secured. We must give no sleep to our eyes until we have laid hold of the freedom He offers.