Proverbs 11:15

11:15 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 22:26-27

22:26 Do not be one who strikes hands in pledge

or who puts up security for debts.

22:27 If you do not have enough to pay,

your bed ⁵  will be taken ⁶  right out from under you! ⁷ 

Proverbs 27:13

27:13 Take a man’s ⁸  garment when he has given security for a stranger,

and when he gives surety for a stranger, ⁹  hold him in pledge. ¹⁰ 

Exodus 22:26-27

22:26 If you do take ¹¹  the garment of your neighbor in pledge, you must return it to him by the time the sun goes down, ¹²  22:27 for it is his only covering – it is his garment for his body. ¹³  What else can he sleep in? ¹⁴  And ¹⁵  when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

[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.

[22:27]  ⁵ tn The “bed” may be a metonymy of adjunct, meaning the garment that covers the bed (e.g., Exod 22:26). At any rate, it represents the individual’s last possession (like the English expression “the shirt off his back”).

[22:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “If you cannot pay, why should he take the bed from under you?” This rhetorical question is used to affirm the statement. The rhetorical interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) appears in MT but not in the ancient versions; it may be in the Hebrew text by dittography.

[22:27]  ⁷ sn The third saying deals with rash vows: If people foolishly pledge what they have, they could lose everything (e.g., 6:1-5; 11:15; 17:18; 20:16; there is no Egyptian parallel).

[27:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “his garment.”

[27:13]  ⁹ tn Or “for a strange (= adulterous) woman.” Cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT; NIV “a wayward woman.”

[27:13]  ¹⁰ tn This proverb is virtually identical to 20:16.

[22:26]  ¹¹ tn The construction again uses the infinitive absolute with the verb in the conditional clause to stress the condition.

[22:26]  ¹² tn The clause uses the preposition, the infinitive construct, and the noun that is the subjective genitive – “at the going in of the sun.”

[22:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “his skin.”

[22:27]  ¹⁴ tn Literally the text reads, “In what can he lie down?” The cloak would be used for a covering at night to use when sleeping. The garment, then, was the property that could not be taken and not given back – it was the last possession. The modern idiom of “the shirt off his back” gets at the point being made here.

[22:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and it will be.”