15 He who is collateral for a stranger will suffer for it, but he who refuses pledges of collateral is secure.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
See the marginal reference. The play upon "sure" and "suretiship" in the the King James Version (though each word is rightly rendered) has nothing corresponding to it in the Hebrew, and seems to have originated in a desire to give point to the proverb.
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it - He shall find evil upon evil in it. See on Proverbs 6:1 (note).
He that is surety for a (h) stranger shall smart [for it]: and he (i) that hateth suretiship is secure.
(h) He who does not without judgment and consideration of the circumstances put himself in danger, as in (Proverbs 6:1).
(i) He who does not co-sign loans for others is very wise.
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it,.... Or in "breaking shall be broken" (q), ruined and undone; he engaging or becoming a bondsman for one whose circumstances he knew not; and these being bad bring a load upon him, such an heavy debt as crushes him to pieces. Mr. Henry observes that our Lord Jesus Christ became a surety for us when we were strangers, and he smarted for it, he was bruised and wounded for our sins; but then he knew our circumstances, and what the consequence would be, and became a surety on purpose to pay the whole debt and set us free; which he was capable of doing: without being broken or becoming a bankrupt himself; for he was not broken, nor did he fail, Isaiah 42:4. Jarchi's note is,
"the wicked shall be broken, to whose heart idolatry is sweet;''
and he that hateth suretyship is sure; or those "that strike" (r), that is, with the hand, used in suretyship; see Proverbs 6:1; such an one is safe from coming into trouble by such means. The Targum is,
"and hates those that place their hope in God.''
(q) "frangendo frangetur", Michaelis; so Pagninus and others. (r) "complodentes", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius; "defigentes", Mercerus.
The welfare of our families, our own peace, and our ability to pay just debts, must not be brought into danger. But here especially let us consider the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in becoming Surety even for enemies.
(Compare Proverbs 6:1).
suretiship--(Compare Margin), the actors put for the action, which may be lawfully hated.
There follow now two proverbs regarding kindness which brings injury and which brings honour:
It fares ill, nothing but ill, with one who is surety for another;
But he who hateth suretyship remaineth in quietness.
More closely to the original: It goes ill with him; for the proverb is composed as if the writer had before his eyes a definite person, whom one assails when he for whom he became security has not kept within the limits of the performance that was due. Regarding ערב with the accus. of the person: to represent one as a surety for him, and זר as denoting the other (the stranger), vid., at Proverbs 6:1. The meaning of רע ירוע is seen from Proverbs 20:16. ירוע is, like Proverbs 13:20, the fut. Niph. of רעע, or of רוּע = רעע, after the forms ימּול, יעור (Olsh. 265e). The added רעע has, like עריה, Habakkuk 3:9, the same function as the inf. absol. (intensivus); but as the infin. form רע could only be inf. constru. after the form שׁך, Jeremiah 5:26, the infinitive absol. must be רוע: Thus רע is an accus., or what is the same, an adverbial adj.: he is badly treated (maltreated) in a bad way, for one holds him to his words and, when he cannot or will not accomplish that which is due in the room of him for whom he is bail, arrests him. He, on the contrary, who hates תוקעים has good rest. The persons of such as become surety by striking the hands cannot be meant, but perhaps people thus becoming surety by a hand-stroke - such sureties, and thus such suretyship, he cannot suffer; תוקעים approaches an abstract "striking hands," instead of "those who strike hands" in connection with this שׂנא, expressing only a strong impossibility, as חבלים, Zac 2:7, 14, means uniting together in the sense of combination.
*More commentary available at chapter level.