Discovery BoxProverbs 11:15
Context11:15 The one who puts up security for a stranger 1 will surely have trouble, 2
but whoever avoids 3 shaking hands 4 will be secure.
Proverbs 20:16-17
Context20:16 Take a man’s 5 garment 6 when he has given security for a stranger, 7
and when he gives surety for strangers, 8 hold him 9 in pledge.
20:17 Bread gained by deceit 10 tastes sweet to a person, 11
but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel. 12
Proverbs 27:13
Context27:13 Take a man’s 13 garment when he has given security for a stranger,
and when he gives surety for a stranger, 14 hold him in pledge. 15
Proverbs 17:18
Context17:18 The one who lacks wisdom 16 strikes hands in pledge, 17
[11:15] 1 sn The “stranger” could refer to a person from another country or culture, as it often does; but it could also refer to an unknown Israelite, with the idea that the individual stands outside the known and respectable community.
[11:15] 2 tn The sentence begins with the Niphal imperfect and the cognate (רַע־יֵרוֹעַ, ra’-yeroa’), stressing that whoever does this “will certainly suffer hurt.” The hurt in this case will be financial responsibility for a bad risk.
[11:15] 3 tn Heb “hates.” The term שֹׂנֵא (shoneh) means “to reject,” and here “to avoid.” The participle is substantival, functioning as the subject of the clause. The next participle, תֹקְעִים (toq’im, “striking hands”), is its object, telling what is hated. The third participle בּוֹטֵחַ (boteakh, “is secure”) functions verbally.
[11:15] 4 tn Heb “striking.” The imagery here is shaking hands to seal a contract. The term “hands” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied.
[20:16] 5 tn Heb “his garment.”
[20:16] 6 sn Taking a garment was the way of holding someone responsible to pay debts. In fact, the garment was the article normally taken for security (Exod 22:24-26; Deut 24:10-13). Because this is a high risk security pledge (e.g., 6:1-5), the creditor is to deal more severely than when the pledge is given by the debtor for himself.
[20:16] 7 tc The Kethib has the masculine plural form, נָכְרִים (nakhrim), suggesting a reading “strangers.” But the Qere has the feminine form נָכְרִיָּה (nakhriyyah), “strange woman” or “another man’s wife” (e.g., 27:13). The parallelism would suggest “strangers” is the correct reading, although theories have been put forward for the interpretation of “strange woman” (see below).
[20:16] 8 tn M. Dahood argues that the cloak was taken in pledge for a harlot (cf. NIV “a wayward woman”). Two sins would then be committed: taking a cloak and going to a prostitute (“To Pawn One’s Cloak,” Bib 42 [1961]: 359-66; also Snijders, “The Meaning of זָר,” 85-86). In the MT the almost identical proverb in 27:13 has a feminine singular form here.
[20:16] 9 tn Or “hold it” (so NIV, NCV).
[20:17] 9 tn Heb “bread of deceit” (so KJV, NAB). This refers to food gained through dishonest means. The term “bread” is a synecdoche of specific for general, referring to anything obtained by fraud, including food.
[20:17] 11 sn The image of food and eating is carried throughout the proverb. Food taken by fraud seems sweet at first, but afterward it is not. To end up with a mouth full of gravel (a mass of small particles; e.g., Job 20:14-15; Lam 3:16) implies by comparison that what has been taken by fraud will be worthless and useless and certainly in the way (like food turning into sand and dirt).
[27:13] 13 tn Heb “his garment.”
[27:13] 14 tn Or “for a strange (= adulterous) woman.” Cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT; NIV “a wayward woman.”
[27:13] 15 tn This proverb is virtually identical to 20:16.
[17:18] 17 tn Heb “heart”; KJV, ASV “a man void of understanding”; NIV “a man lacking in judgment.”
[17:18] 18 tn The phrase “in pledge” is supplied for the sake of clarification.
[17:18] 19 tn The line uses the participle עֹרֵב (’orev) with its cognate accusative עֲרֻבָּה (’arubah), “who pledges a pledge.”
[17:18] 20 sn It is foolish to pledge security for someone’s loans (e.g., Prov 6:1-5).
