Proverbs 6:1
My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, thou hast engaged fast thy hand to a stranger.
Open Proverbs 6:1 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Fili mi, si spoponderis pro amico tuo, defixisti apud extraneum manum tuam :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Υἱέ, ἐὰν ἐγγυήσῃ σὸν φίλον, παραδώσεις σὴν χεῖρα ἐχθρῷ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- בְּ֭נִי אִם עָרַ֣בְתָּ לְרֵעֶ֑ךָ תָּקַ֖עְתָּ לַזָּ֣ר כַּפֶּֽיךָ
Haydock's commentary
Hand. Agreements were made by shaking hands, Isaias lxii. 8. (Xenophon, Anab. iii.)
Stranger. Septuagint, "enemy." He will presently be such, or thy friend's creditor will soon lay hold on thee. By standing surety for another, we expose ourselves to be ruined by his negligence. (Calmet)
The Persians had a horror chiefly of lying and debts. (Herodotus i. 138.)
All sureties are not condemned, but only such as are inconsiderate. (Menochius)
A diligent compliance with engagements is commended. (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter XV. On the Different Kinds of Voluntary Actions, and the Sins Thence Proceeding
For “great is the joy before the Father when one sinner is saved,” saith the Lord. So Abraham was much to be praised, because “he walked as the Lord spake to him.” Drawing from this instance, one of the wise men among the Greeks uttered the maxim, “Follow God.” “The godly,” says Esaias, “framed wise counsels.” Now counsel is seeking for the right way of acting in present circumstances, and good counsel is wisdom in our counsels. And what? Does not God, after the pardon bestowed on Cain, suitably not long after introduce Enoch, who had repented? showing that it is the nature of repentance to produce pardon; but pardon does not consist in remission, but in remedy. An instance of the same is the making of the calf by the people before Aaron. …
St Gregory the Great The Book of Pastoral Rule, How subjects and prelates are to be admonished
( Admonition 5.) Differently to be admonished are subjects and prelates: the former that subjection crush them not, the latter that superior place elate them not: the former that they fail not to fulfil what is commanded them, the latter that they command not more to be fulfilled than is just: the former that they submit humbly, the latter that they preside temperately. For this, which may be understood also figuratively, is said to the former, Children, obey your parents in the Lord : but to the latter it is enjoined, And ye, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath ( Coloss. iii. 20, 21 ). Let the former learn how to order their inward thoughts before the eyes of the hidden judge; the latter how also to those that are committed to them to afford outwardly examples of good living. …