Proverbs

CHAPTER 6

Miscellaneous Proverbs^*

Against Going Surety for One’s Neighbor

given your hand in pledge to another,

caught by the words of your mouth;

since you have fallen into your neighbor’s power:

Go, hurry, rouse your neighbor!

nor slumber to your eyelids;

or like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

The Ant and the Sluggard at Harvest

study her ways and learn wisdom;

no commander or ruler,

stores up her provisions in the harvest.

when will you rise from your sleep?

a little folding of the arms to rest—^*

and want like a brigand.

The Scoundrel

who deal in crooked talk.

feet ever moving,

pointing with fingers,

always plotting evil,

sowing discord.

in an instant they are crushed beyond cure.

What the Lord Rejects

yes, seven^* are an abomination to him;

hands that shed innocent blood,

feet that are quick to run to evil,

and the one who sows discord among kindred.

Warning Against Adultery^*

and do not reject your mother’s teaching;

tie them around your neck.

when you wake, they will share your concerns;

wherever you turn, they will guide you.

and a way to life are the reproofs that discipline,

from the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.^c

do not let her captivate you with her glance!^d

may be scarcely a loaf of bread,

But a married woman

is a trap for your precious life.

and his garments not be burned?

and his feet not be scorched?

none who touches her shall go unpunished.^e

if out of hunger they steal to satisfy their appetite.

yield up all the wealth of their house.

those who do it destroy themselves.

and their shame will not be wiped away;

he will have no pity on the day of vengeance;

nor be satisfied by your many bribes.

* [6:1–19] Four independent pieces akin to those in 30:1–5, 6–11, 12–15, and 16–19. Some judge the verses to be an ancient addition, but the fact that the pieces differ from the other material in chaps. 1–9 is not a strong argument against their originality. Ancient anthologies did not always have the symmetry of modern collections. An editor may have placed the four pieces in the midst of the three poems on the forbidden woman to shed light on some of their themes. Verses 1–5 warn against getting trapped by one’s words to another person (the Hebrew word for “another” is the same used for the forbidden woman); vv. 6–11 proposes the ant as a model of forethought and diligence; vv. 12–15 describes the reprobate who bears some similarity to the seductive woman, especially as portrayed in chap. 7; vv. 16–19 depicts the typical enemy of God, underscoring the person’s destructive words.

* [6:1–5] Unlike other instructions that begin with “my son,” this instruction does not urge the hearer to store up the father’s words as a means to wisdom, but only to avoid one practice—going surety for one’s neighbor. The warning is intensified by repetition of “neighbor” and “free yourself,” the mention of bodily organs, and the imagery of hunting. Given your hand in pledge: lit., “struck your hands”; this was probably the legal method for closing a contract. To become surety meant intervening in favor of the insolvent debtor and assuming responsibility for the payment of the debt, either by obtaining it from the debtor or substituting oneself. Proverbs is strongly opposed to the practice (11:15; 17:18; 20:16; 22:26–27; 27:13) apparently because of the danger it poses to the freedom of the one providing surety.

* [6:6–11] The sluggard or lazybones is a type in Proverbs, like the righteous and the wicked. Sometimes the opposite type to the sluggard is the diligent person. Other extended passages on the sluggard are 24:30–34 and 26:13–16. The malice of the type is not low physical energy but the refusal to act. To describe human types, Proverbs often uses comparisons from the animal world, e.g., 27:8 (bird); 28:1, 15 (lion); 30:18–19 (eagle, snake); 30:24–28 (ant, badger, locust, lizard).

* [6:10] This verse may be regarded as the sluggard’s reply or as a continuation of the remonstrance.

* [6:12–15] Proverbs uses types to make the point that certain ways of acting have inherent consequences. The typifying intensifies the picture. All the physical organs—mouth, eyes, feet, fingers—are at the service of evil. Cf. Rom 6:12–13: “Therefore, sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons of righteousness.”

* [6:16] Six…seven: this literary pattern (n, n + 1) occurs frequently; cf., e.g., Am 1–2; Prv 30:18–19.

* [6:17–19] The seven vices, symbolized for the most part by bodily organs, are pride, lying, murder, intrigue, readiness to do evil, false witness, and the stirring up of discord.

* [6:20–35] The second of three instructions on adultery (5:1–23; 6:20–35; and chap. 7). The instructions assume that wisdom will protect one from adultery and its consequences: loss of property and danger to one’s person. In this poem, the father and the mother urge their son to keep their teaching constantly before his eyes. The teaching will light his way and make it a path to life (v. 23). The teaching will preserve him from the adulterous woman who is far more dangerous than a prostitute. Prostitutes may cost one money, but having an affair with someone else’s wife puts one in grave danger. The poem bluntly urges self-interest as a motive to refrain from adultery.

The poem has three parts. I (vv. 20–24, ten lines), in which v. 23 repeats “command” and “teaching” of v. 20 and “keeping” in v. 24 completes the fixed pair initiated by “observe” in v. 20; II (vv. 25–29, ten lines) is a self-contained argument comparing the costs of a liaison with a prostitute and a married woman; III (vv. 30–35, twelve lines) draws conclusions from the comparison of adultery with theft: the latter involves property only but adultery destroys one’s name and very self. The best protection against such a woman is heeding parental instruction, which is to be kept vividly before one’s eyes like a written tablet.

* [6:22] They: Heb. has “she.” If this verse is not out of place, then the antecedent of “she” is command (v. 20), or perhaps wisdom.

* [6:27–29] There is a play on three words of similar sound, ’îsh, “man,” ’ishshâ, “woman,” and ’ēsh, “fire, embers.” The question, “Can a man (’îsh) take embers (’ēsh) into his bosom / and his garments not be burned?”, has a double meaning. “Into his bosom” has an erotic meaning as in the phrase “wife of one’s bosom” (Dt 13:6; 28:54; Sir 9:1). Hence one will destroy one’s garments, which symbolize one’s public position, by taking fire/another’s wife into one’s bosom.

* [6:33–35] The nature of the husband’s vengeance is disputed, some believing it is simply a physical beating whereas others hold it is public and involves the death penalty because Lv 20:20 and Dt 22:22 demand the death penalty.

a. [6:1] Prv 11:15; 22:26; Sir 8:13; 29:19.

b. [6:6] Prv 30:25.

c. [6:24] Prv 2:16; 7:5.

d. [6:25] Ex 20:17; Dt 5:21; Sir 9:8; 25:20; Mt 5:28.

e. [6:29] Sir 9:9.