CRITICAL NOTES,—
Proverbs 6:1. With a stranger, rather, “for” a stranger.
Proverbs 6:3. When thou art come, rather, “for thou hast come.” Humble thyself, literally “let thyself be trodden under foot.” Make sure, “importune,” “urge.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH— Proverbs 6:1-5
SELF-IMPOSED BONDAGE
I. Man’s highest glory may become the chief instrument of his trouble. The human tongue, or rather the power of speech, is a gift that stands preeminent among the good gifts of God to His creatures. It is man’s most potent instrument of good or evil. The tongue of the statesman, when used wisely, may bring blessings on millions, but when it is made the tool of ambition it may entail misery upon generations. The tongue of a Christian, when used wisely, may be the means of bringing others into the way of life, but his unguarded words may be a stumbling-block in the way of many. The warning of the text reminds us that when the tongue is not kept in check by reason and consideration the glory becomes the means of ensnaring the whole man. The horse is a most useful servant to man, but the creature must be under proper control or he may be the means of inflicting the most serious injury upon his rider. If the rudder of a vessel is left to the guidance of the waves, the vessel is very likely to find herself upon the rocks. So with the tongue of man, it must be under the control of reason or it may bring its owner into danger and disgrace. When a man binds himself by solemn promises to a stranger of whose character he must be ignorant, he is very likely to involve himself and those dependent on him in much trouble, and perhaps in dishonour. A promise hastily made without due consideration of the consequences has often entailed upon a man years of suffering.
II. The same instrument which, thoughtlessly used, brings a man into a snare, may, when rightly guided, be the means of his deliverance. The promise made by Herod to Herodias (Matthew 14:7) was one which ought never to have been made. The king was ensnared by allowing his tongue to utter rash words, of which even he upon reflection repented. In his case, without doubt, it would have been a much less sin to have broken his promise than to keep it. But in the case before us, the advice given by Solomon to his pupil is, not to break his word, but to use the same instrument by which he bound himself, to obtain, if possible, a release. This he is to do—
1. By means purely moral. There are other means which a man might try. He might use threatening; he might employ falsehood; but these would be sinful. The only lawful means are those here implied, viz., words of persuasion and entreaty.
2. Without delay. He must endeavour to rectify his error at once; every day that passes over his head may be bringing nearer the day when he may be called upon to redeem his promise, and so he is to give “no sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids.
III. This advice is to be followed as a matter of duty. The man who has acted imprudently is bound to endeavour to deliver himself by lawful means. He is not to allow pride to hinder him (Proverbs 6:3). He is bound to try and prevent his life from being marred in the future—perhaps to its very close. For a man who is fettered by a promise which ought never to have been made, is like a creature born to enjoy freedom who has been taken captive by the hunter or the fowler. And as it is more than lawful for the roe or the bird (Proverbs 6:5) to try to regain its freedom, so is it the duty of man to use all right means to the same end.
ILLLUSTRATION OF Proverbs 6:1
The custom of striking hands at the conclusion of a bargain has maintained its ground among the customs of civilised nations down to the present time. To strike hands with another was the emblem of agreement among the Greeks under the walls of Troy, for Nestor complains, in a public assembly of the chiefs, that the Trojans had violated the engagements which they had sanctioned by libations of wine and by giving their right hands. (Iliad, Book II. i. 341, see also Book IV. i. 139). The Roman faith was plighted in the same way; for in Virgil, when Dido marked from her watch-towers the Trojan fleet setting forward with balanced sails, she exclaimed, “Is this the honour, the faith, En dextra fidesque?” Another striking instance is quoted by Calmet from Ockley’s History of the Saracens. Telha, just before he died, asked one of Ali’s men if he belonged to the Emperor of the Faithful, and being informed that he did, “Give me, then,” said he, “your hand, that I may put mine into it, and by this action renew the oath of fidelity I have already made to him.” (Calmet, vol. iii). See also Job 17:3; 2 Kings 10:15.—Paxton’s Illustrations of Scripture.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 6:1. The two characters are carefully distinguished.
1. The companion, on whose behalf the young man pledges himself.
2. The stranger, probably the Phœnician money-lender, to whom he makes himself responsible. Plumptre.
God graciously directs our temporal affairs by His providence, and condescends, in His word, to give us instructions concerning them. If we regard not these, we need not be surprised though His providence convince us, by dear-bought experience, of our folly and sin.—Lawson.
The son has just been warned against the deadly wound of a stranger. He is now cautioned against a hurt from an imprudent friend.… Our God, while he warns us against suretyship, has taken it upon Himself. He has given His word, His bond—yea, His blood—for sinners: a security that no powers of hell can shake.—Bridges.
Solomon, on different occasions, condemns the practice of suretyship. The condemnation is general. It does not follow, however, that what he says is to be taken as an unqualified prohibition, to which there are no circumstances that can constitute an exception.… There are cases in which it is unavoidable; and there are cases in which the law requires it; and there are cases in which it is not only in consistency with law, but required by all the claims of prudence, justice, and charity. These, however, are rare. And it may be laid down as a maxim regarding the transactions of business, and all the mutual dealings of man with man, that the less of it the better. In such cases as the following, it is manifestly inadmissible, and may even, in some instances, involve a large amount of moral turpitude.
I. It is wrong for a man to come under engagements that are beyond his actually existing means. Such a course is one not merely of imprudence, but there is in it a threefold injustice. First, to the creditor for whom he becomes surety. Secondly, to his family, if he has one, to whom the requisition of payment must bring distress and ruin. Thirdly, to those who give him credit in his own transactions, with the risks of his own trade.
II. The same observations are applicable to the making of engagements with inconsideration and rashness. The case here supposed is evidently that of suretyship for a friend to a stranger. And the rashness may be viewed either in relation to the person or to the case.—Wardlaw.
It may at first excite surprise that Solomon should have thought it needful to dwell so much as he does in the Proverbs on the evil of suretyship (Proverbs 11:15; Proverbs 17:18; Proverbs 20:16; Proverbs 22:26; Proverbs 27:13), and that in his lessons of moral prudence he should assign the first place to cautions against it. The reason is probably to be found in the peculiar circumstances under which the Proverbs were written, and the special design of the author in writing them; although, doubtless, Solomon had a general and universal purpose in composing them, and the Holy Spirit, who employed his instrumentality in the work, looked far beyond Solomon and his times, and extended his view to all ages and nations of the world.… But the occasion which gave rise to the writing of the Proverbs was a personal and national one. Many strangers resorted to Jerusalem in the days of Solomon from all parts of the civilised world, for the purpose of commerce and trade. Borrowing and lending money was much in vogue; and many shrewd and crafty adventurers speculated on the credulity of rich capitalists. Solomon addresses his son Rehoboam (Proverbs 6:3). He was born before his father’s accession to the throne, and Solomon reigned forty years. We hear nothing of him until his ripe maturity, and then we are told of an act of egregious folly. It was evident he was just the person to be the dupe of licentious spendthrifts and griping usurers. The courtly parasite who desired to find means for paying his own debts, or indulging his own vices, and the avaricious moneylender, would find a victim in the princely heir to the throne, whom they would flatter with eulogies on his generosity, and would puff up with proud notions of the exhaustless wealth to which he was the aspirant.—Wordsworth.
Proverbs 6:2. In the passage before us the warning is not so much against suretyship in general as merely against the imprudent assumption of such obligations, leaving out of account the moral unreliableness of the man involved; and the counsel is to the quickest possible release from every obligation of this kind that may have been hastily assumed. With the admonitions of our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount, to be ready at all times for the lending and giving away of one’s property, even in cases where one cannot hope for the recovery of what has been given out (Luke 6:30-36: comp. with 1 Corinthians 6:7), this demand is not in conflict. For Christ also plainly demands no such readiness to suffer loss on account of our neighbour, as would deprive us of personal liberty, and rob us of all means of further beneficence.—Lange’s Commentary.
For bills and obligations do mancipate the most free and ingenuous spirit, and so put a man out of aim that he can neither serve God without distraction nor do good to others, nor set his own state in any good order, but lives and dies entangled and puzzled with cares and snares; and after a tedious and laborious life passed in a circle of fretting thoughts, he leaves at last, instead of better patrimony, a world of intricate troubles to his posterity, who are also taken “with the words of his mouth.”—Trapp.
Proverbs 6:3. This appeal is not, obviously, to the bond-giver, who has seduced us to endorse him, and is as helpless as we to get anybody off; but the bond-holder; and the great remedy, therefore, for a securityship is to beg off in the most unspeakable abjectness, and to press and to urge the creditor to release our name. Now, I say, this is not simpliciter, the gist of the inspiration. But if we introduce the Gospel; if we see in this a great picture of our guilt; if we see in the bond-holder the Friend to whom we are to appeal; if we see in the bond-giver sin in all the seductive forms in which it has come down to us from the original transgressor; if the grip of the suretyship is the law, and the form of the law is the broken covenant; if the act of our “striking hands” is the way we have accepted the curse of Adam, and the way we have volunteered under this stranger’s burdens, then the whole passage becomes complete, and we are ready for the appeal, “Go, humble thyself,” &c. That is the very Gospel.—Miller.
St. Gregory, Bede, and other ancient expositors, apply these injunctions in a spiritual sense. “To be a surety for a friend is to take upon thee the charge of looking to another’s soul,” says St. Gregory, who also, reading the latter clause of this verse in the sense of “urging” and “importuning” (see Critical Notes), explains it thus: “Whosoever is set before others for an example of their living is admonished, not only to watch himself, but to rouse up his friend: for it sufficeth not that he doth watch well, if he do not rouse him also over whom he is set from the drowsiness of sin.
Verse.
4. Has this precept any connection with our spiritual interests? It has. It is a part of the eighth commandment, and though men regard it rather as a loss than as a Sin to endanger their outward estate, it is both a sin and a temptation. Men who once seemed upright in their dealings have brought reproach upon religion by living and dying in other men’s debt, and by having recourse to unjustifiable methods, suggested by distress, to relieve themselves. The effect of suretyship, even with the most upright men, has often proved hurtful to their souls, embittering their days, and unfitting them for the cheerful service of religion. We are the servants of Christ, and must not disqualify ourselves for His service by making ourselves needlessly the servants of men.—Lawson.
Proverbs 6:5. It is evident, however, that the language implies, If, with all your efforts, you are unsuccessful in obtaining your discharge you must stand to your engagement. Treachery would be a much greater loss in character.—Wardlaw.