Chapter Six

The teachings about chastity and the warning against licentiousness, begun by the Wise One in Chapter V, continue in Chapter VI, vv. 20–35, and in Chapter VII. Only in vv. 1–19 is one connected discourse interrupted by teachings of different content and character: 1–5. The evil of thoughtless surety. 6–11. The ruin of idleness and a call to diligence and industriousness. 12–19. The ungodliness of cunning and deceit of the wicked toward their neighbors. The following section vv. 20–35 is divided into two smaller parts: vv. 20–24 — exhortation to chastity, and vv. 25–35 — warning against the temptations of an adulterous wife.

Proverbs 6:1. My son! If you have become surety for your neighbor and given your hand for another, Proverbs 6:2. You have bound yourself by the words of your mouth, caught by the words of your mouth. Proverbs 6:3. Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, fall at his feet and beg your neighbor; Proverbs 6:4. Give no sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids; Proverbs 6:5. Escape, like a gazelle from the hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler. The frequent teachings in the Book of Proverbs about the harm of surety (Prov 6:1) are explained by the fact that, according to the customs of ordinary ancient Hebrew law (not written down in the Mosaic law), one who became surety for an insolvent debtor was treated legally as replacing the latter and, given the usual hard-heartedness of creditors, often paid for his client not only with his own property (Sir 8:16), but also with his personal freedom (2 Sam 4:1; Matt 18:25. See in Ewald’s Die Alterthummer des Volkes Israel. 3rd ed. (1866), p. 246). But in this case the Wise One with all urgency warns his student precisely against thoughtless, hasty, and reckless acceptance of surety obligations, which was undoubtedly not uncommon among young men of that time (the eagerness to take on surety for another could in young men become a particular passion and turn into gambling, similar to dueling among European peoples). The surety itself was performed through a handshake: the surety giver gave his hand to the lender and creditor (cf. Prov 11:15; Job 17:3). Having pointed out to his student the great danger of surety (vv. 1–2), the Wise One then (vv. 3–5) advises him to use all means to free himself from the possible unpleasant consequences of his thoughtlessly accepted obligation. As such a means, it is recommended (v. 3) to earnestly, even humbly beseech the debtor to immediately repay the debt to the creditor; and then — it is advised with unrelenting vigilance — not giving sleep to your eyes and slumber to your eyelids (v. 4 — apparently an ancient Hebrew proverb, cf. Ps 11:4), by all means, even at the cost of the greatest effort, to escape — just as sometimes a gazelle or bird escapes from a trap (v. 5, note Ps 123:7) — from his painful position created by unwise surety. The whole discourse about surety has the character of purely practical wisdom, indicating as the main motive for action — the feeling of self-preservation.

Proverbs 6:6. Go to the ant, sluggard, observe its ways and be wise. Proverbs 6:7. It has no chief, no overseer, and no ruler; Proverbs 6:8. Yet it provides its food in summer, gathers its sustenance in harvest. “Proverbs 6. Prov. 6:8a. —Or go to the bee and learn how industrious it is, what honorable work it does;—” “Proverbs 6. Prov. 6:8b. —Its labors are used for health by both kings and common people; it is beloved by all and honored;—” “Proverbs 6. Prov. 6:8c. —Though it is weak in strength, it is honored for its wisdom.]” Proverbs 6:9. How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? Proverbs 6:10. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of hands to rest: Proverbs 6:11. And poverty will come upon you like a wayfarer, and need like an armed man.— “Proverbs 6. Prov. 6:11a. —[But if you are not lazy, then like a spring your harvest will come; scarcity will flee far from you.]” The same feeling of self-preservation, according to the Wise One’s thought, should compel man to industriousness and draw him away from idleness, with the ant being set forth in vv. 6–8 as an example of industriousness (according to the LXX v. 8 — also the bee), and in vv. 9–11 the ruinous consequences for man of his idleness are adduced. The ant, laboring at all times according to its own instinctive drive — without external compulsion (v. 7) and wisely gathering provisions for itself in summer for the winter (v. 8), is a very suitable and instructive symbol and lesson of industriousness; as such a symbol or model, the ant is very often encountered in the poetry of Arabic and Persian as well as in classical literature (in Aristotle, Virgil, Horace, see Zöckler. Die Spruche Salomionis, p. 69). The LXX (also the Slavonic and Russian Synodal) in v. 8, besides the ant, present as an exemplar of industriousness and craft also the bee (in the Complutensian edition of the Greek text the discourse about the bee is omitted): the honey gathered by the bee with the greatest craft is used for health not only by common people but by kings as well, and the bee is honored by all. Although beekeeping as a trade is not mentioned in the Old Testament (only later in Philo and in the Mishnah), under the name honey (Hebrew devash) (for example, in the expression: land flowing with milk and honey) is understood chiefly fruit honey (even now called in Syria dibs), but the biblical Hebrews undoubtedly knew about bee honey (see Deut 1:44; Judg 14:8; Ps 117:12; Isa 7:18), and therefore the LXX might have read in their Hebrew original this other comparison or personification of industriousness. From the comparison the Wise One passes (v. 9 and ff.) to direct censure of the sluggard, carelessly sleeping a deep sleep. To the invitation to wake up (v. 9, cf. note Eccl 4:5; note Eph 5:14), the sluggard responds with a request to let him sleep a little more or doze (v. 10, cf. note Prov 24:33). But the Wise One threatens him with inevitable consequences of negligence and idleness: poverty — destitution, which comes quickly, unexpectedly, like a wayfarer, like an armed robber (LXX: ὥσπερ κακος ὀδοὸπόρός ὤσπερ ἀγάθος δρομευύς, Vulg.: quasi viator, quasi vir armatus), see v. 11. At the end of v. 11 the LXX, Vulgate (Slavonic, Russian) have an addition expressing the opposite thought to that set forth in the first half of the verse (in the Complutensian Bible the addition is absent): the addition has the appearance of an expansionary gloss. In Prov 24:33-34 the verses 10–11 of the chapter under consideration are repeated, but this addition there is not present.

Proverbs 6:12. A man of deceit, an ungodly man, walks with deceitful lips, Proverbs 6:13. He winks with his eyes, speaks with his feet, and signals with his fingers; Proverbs 6:14. He has deceit in his heart: he devises evil constantly, he sows discord. Proverbs 6:15. Therefore his destruction will come suddenly, he will be broken suddenly — without remedy. Proverbs 6:16. Behold, six things the Lord hates, even seven things that are an abomination to His soul: Proverbs 6:17. A proud eye, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, Proverbs 6:18. A heart that devises evil schemes, feet that run quickly to wickedness, Proverbs 6:19. A false witness who testifies to a lie, and one who sows discord among family. In verses 12–15 the Wise One cautions his student against all kinds and manifestations of deceit and cunning, and in vv. 16–19 these vices and certain others are presented as particularly abhorrent to God. Already earlier (Prov 4:24-25) he had warned against deceit and called for direct and open conduct. Here he does the same, but while doing so, he gives a detailed portrayal of the cunning mimicry — of eyes, feet, fingers — of the deceitful and cunning man (v. 13), who is always scheming evil in his heart against his neighbor and society (v. 14, cf. Prov 2:12): but the final, incurable ruin of the evildoer is inevitable (v. 15. Prov 1:27). Then, to arouse in the student greater revulsion toward the vices of malice, deceit, and cunning, the Wise One names, vv. 17–19, seven (properly six) vices that constitute manifestations of the general depravity and corruption of the human heart. In the LXX (and in the Slavonic) the thought about six vices in v. 15 is absent. And in other places in the Book of Proverbs such things are denounced: proud eyes (Prov 30:13), hands that shed blood (Prov 1:11), and the like, but here these denunciations are grouped more completely and expressed in the particular form characteristic of the language of proverbs — numerical parallelism.

Proverbs 6:20. My son! Keep the command of your father, and do not reject the teaching of your mother; Proverbs 6:21. Bind them always upon your heart, tie them about your neck. Proverbs 6:22. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will speak with you: Proverbs 6:23. For a command is a lamp, and teaching is light, and corrective discipline is a path to life, Proverbs 6:24. To protect you from an evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a stranger. Proverbs 6:25. Do not desire her beauty in your heart, [and let yourself not be caught by her eyes,] and do not let her draw you in with her eyelashes; Proverbs 6:26. For because of a harlot woman one can become poor even to a piece of bread, but the wife of another ensnares a precious soul. Proverbs 6:27. Can a man take fire in his lap and not have his clothes burn? Proverbs 6:28. Can a man walk on burning coals and not burn his feet? Proverbs 6:29. The same is true of one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife: whoever touches her will not go unpunished. Proverbs 6:30. They do not excuse a thief when he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is hungry; Proverbs 6:31. But when caught, he will pay sevenfold, will give all the property of his house. Proverbs 6:32. Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does this destroys his own soul: Proverbs 6:33. Blows and disgrace he will find, and his shame will not be erased, Proverbs 6:34. Because jealousy stirs up a husband’s fury, and he will not spare on the day of revenge, Proverbs 6:35. He will accept no ransom, and will not be satisfied though you multiply your gifts. Now resuming the thread of reasoning and teachings about chastity and the harm of licentiousness, the Wise One here (v. 20), as well as at the beginning of the book (Prov 1:8), makes a deliberate exhortation to the student — to remember the commandments and teachings of parents, which according to the Mosaic law (Deut 6:7) not only had to keep and fulfill God’s commandments themselves, but also make known to their children. Such a general introduction before the exhortations to chastity is entirely analogous to similar introductions in (Prov 5:1-2) and Prov 7:1-5) to the discourse on the same subject. In view of the special importance of the precepts about chastity, the Wise One earnestly advises his student — always constantly to keep in thought, as if on his heart and neck (v. 21, cf. Prov 3:3) the parental precepts, which should protect the youth from temptations in all life situations and relations (vv. 22, cf. vv. 23–24), for such is the nature of the commandments transmitted by parents — God’s Law, which always serves as the true light and guiding principle of human life (v. 23, cf. Ps 123:105), and therefore, in particular, these commandments are always able to keep the inexperienced youth from criminal association with an evil, that is, adulterous woman (v. 24, cf. Prov 2:16). Now, in vv. 25–35, with the aim of more decisively protecting the youth from the temptations of adultery, the Wise One depicts the internal — psychological — and external — factual — side of adultery, pointing out the ruinous consequences. First of all, the Wise One cautions (v. 25) against the very beginning or root of the sin of adultery: one must beware of the arising of lust or passionate attraction in the heart to a harlot and generally to a strange woman under the impression of her beauty or seeming attractiveness of her outward appearance. In this indication by the Wise One of the need to guard first of all one’s own heart from desire, one cannot but see the further development of the commandment of the Decalogue “you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21) and the preparation of the Gospel’s exalted understanding of this commandment (Matt 5:28). Mentioning further (v. 26) that the harlot, a despicable and insignificant being, can nevertheless ruin a respectable person, who, by falling into licentiousness, loses not only property (cf. Prov 29:3; Sir 9:6), but also honor and good name, the Wise One further (vv. 27–29) expresses the thought that any contact with the wife of another, committed with an unclean purpose, in no way can remain innocent: just as it is impossible to keep clothes intact if one takes fire in his lap, just as it is impossible to keep one’s feet from burning if one walks on burning coals (both questions in vv. 27 and 28 presuppose an absolutely negative answer, as in Amos 3:4-6), so it is unthinkable for a man to preserve innocence, an unblemished name, and freedom from guilt before the judge — with thoughtless and impermissible close association with another man’s unfaithful wife. In vv. 30–32 another everyday example is offered, from which the same thought is drawn — the inevitable responsibility of a man who has fallen into the sin of an adulterous wife: if a thief is not forgiven for his deed, even with the presence of mitigating circumstances (hunger) — on the contrary, they demand from him sevenfold (according to Mosaic law (Exod 22:1-2)), properly five times or four times; “sevenfold” here in v. 31, as in Gen 4:15) — a round number instead of an indefinite multitude, for in the second half of the verse the fine is determined even more broadly — even all his household property, then all the more does not the participant in adultery, toward whom nothing compelled him, deserve clemency. 33–35. Blows and shame, he will find, and his shame will not be blotted out, all the more so because the husband of the unfaithful wife will not want to take from him even monetary compensation or ransom. But the highest and most keenly felt punishment for an adulterer, according to Solomon’s views, as well as Sirach’s, is contempt from public opinion, indelible shame before society. * * * However, on philological grounds, Lagarde, Hitzig, Ewald, Delitzsch, and others consider the entire discourse about the bee to be properly a Greek interpolation.