Proverbs 6:1-19

1 My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger;

2 if you are snared in the utterance of your lips, caught in the words of your mouth;

3 then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor's power: go, hasten, and importune your neighbor.

4 Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;

5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

7 Without having any chief, officer or ruler,

8 she prepares her food in summer, and gathers her sustenance in harvest.

9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?

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

11 and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond, and want like an armed man.

12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,

13 winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet, points with his finger,

14 with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord;

15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

16 There are six things which the LORD hates, seven which are an abomination to him:

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,

19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers.

Proverbs 6:1-19 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 6

In this chapter the wise man dissuades from rash suretyship; exposes the sin of idleness; describes a wicked man; makes mention of seven things hateful to God; exhorts to attend to parental instructions and precepts, and cautions against adultery. Suretyship is described, Pr 6:1; and represented as a snare and a net, in which men are taken, Pr 6:2; and advice is given what to do in such a case, for safety in it, and deliverance from it, Pr 6:3-5; The sin of slothfulness is exposed, by observing the industry of the ant, Pr 6:6-8; by expostulating with the sluggard for his continuance in sloth, and by mimicking him, Pr 6:9,10; and by the poverty it brings upon him, Pr 6:11. Then a naughty wicked man is described, by his mouth, eyes, feet, fingers, and heart, whose ruin is sudden and inevitable, Pr 6:11-15. The seven things hateful to God are particularly named, Pr 6:16-19. And next the exhortation in some preceding chapters is reassumed, to attend to the instructions of parents; which will be found ornamental, pleasant, and useful, Pr 6:20-23. Especially to preserve from the lewd woman cautioned against, Pr 6:24,25; whose company is dissuaded from; on account of the extreme poverty and distress she brings persons to, and even danger of life, Pr 6:26; from the unavoidable ruin such come into, Pr 6:27-29; from the sin of uncleanness being greater than that of theft, Pr 6:30,31; from the folly the adulterer betrays; from the destruction of his soul, and the disgrace he brings on himself, Pr 6:32,33; and from the rage and irreconcilable offence of the husband of the adulteress, Pr 6:34,35.