Proverbs 6:1-19

Wise advice

1 My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor or shake hands in agreement with a stranger,

2 you will be trapped by your words; you will be caught by your words.

3 Do this, my son, to get out of it, for you have come under the control of your neighbor. So go, humble yourself, and pester your neighbor.

4 Don't give sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.

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

6 Go to the ant, you lazy person; observe its ways and grow wise.

7 The ant has no commander, officer, or ruler.

8 Even so, it gets its food in summer; gathers its provisions at harvest.

9 How long, lazy person, will you lie down? When will you rise from your sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to lie down—

11 and poverty will come on you like a prowler, destitution like a warrior.

12 Worthless people and guilty people go around with crooked talk.

13 They wink their eyes, gesture with their feet, and point with their fingers.

14 Their hearts are corrupt and determined to do evil; they create controversies all the time.

15 Therefore, sudden disaster will come upon them; they will be quickly broken beyond healing.

16 There are six things that the LORD hates, seven things detestable to him:

17 snobbish eyes, a lying tongue, hands that spill innocent blood,

18 a heart set on wicked plans, feet that run quickly to evil,

19 a false witness who breathes lies, and one who causes conflicts among relatives.

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb uncertain