16 Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; and hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The warning against suretiship and lust are here repeated and combined (compare Proverbs 27:13). The judge tells the creditor to seize the goods of the surety who has been weak enough to pledge himself for those who are alien to him, instead of those of the actual debtor. The reading of the the King James Version recalls in the second clause the history of Tamar Genesis 38:17-18. The Hebrew text, however, gives "strangers" in the masculine plural, and is probably right, the feminine being the reading of the margin, probably adopted from Proverbs 27:13.
Take his garment that is surety for a stranger - I suppose the meaning to be, If a stranger or unknown person become surety in a case, greater caution should be used, and such security taken from this stranger as would prevent him from running away from his engagements.
Take his (f) garment that is surety [for] a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
(f) Teach him wit, that he cast not himself rashly into danger.
Take his garment that is surety for a stranger,.... Which a man is cautioned against, Proverbs 6:1; but if a man will be so weak and foolish, others ought to take care of him, and be cautious how they trust him; for he is in danger of being ruined by his suretyship, and therefore nothing should be lent him without a pledge, without a proper security; for though it was not lawful to take the garment of a poor man for a pledge, at least it was not to be kept after sunset, Exodus 22:26; yet it was right to take such a man's garment who had or would be thought to have such an abundance as to be surety for a stranger. Some think these words are to be taken as a prophecy of what would be the case of such a man that is a surety for a stranger; in the issue he will be stripped of all he has, and have not a coat to put on. It has been applied to our Lord Jesus Christ, who became a surety for such who were foreigners and strangers, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel; and who had the garment of his human nature taken from him and which was a pledge and ransom for the sins of his people;
and take a pledge of him for a strange woman; a harlot; such as have to do with lewd women are not to be trusted; for they are in a fair way for ruin, and therefore should not be intrusted with anything without a pledge; all in connection with such creatures lose their credit; it is dangerous having any concern with them in trade for they are liable to be brought to a piece of bread; and therefore persons should be cautious how they trade with them, and should observe to secure themselves.
Those ruin themselves who entangle themselves in rash suretiship. Also those who are in league with abandoned women. Place no confidence in either.
Take his garment--implies severe exaction, justified by the surety's rashness.
a strange woman--by some readings "strangers," but the former here, and in Proverbs 27:13, is allowable, and strengthens the sense. The debauchee is less reliable than the merely careless.
16 Take from him the garment, for he hath become surety for another;
And for strangers take him as a pledge.
The same proverb Proverbs 27:13, where קח, with the usual aphaeresis, here interchanges with it the fuller form לקח, which is also found at Ezekiel 37:16. To this imperative חבלהוּ is parallel: take him as a pledge (Theodotion, Jerome, the Venet. and Luther); it is not a substantive: his pledge (Targ.), which would require the word חבלתו (חבלו); nor is it to be read with the Syr. חבלהוּ, one pledges him; but it is imperative, not however of the Piel, which would be חבלהוּ, and would mean "destroy him;" but, as Aben Ezra rightly, the imperative of Kal of חבל, to take as a pledge, Exodus 22:25, for חבלהוּ without any example indeed except חננני, Psalm 9:14; cf. Psalm 80:16. The first line is clear: take his garment, for he has become good for another (cf. Proverbs 11:15), who has left him in the lurch, so that he must now become wise by experience. The second line also is intelligible if we read, according to the Chethı̂b, נכרים (Jerome, the Venet.), not נכריּם, as Schultens incorrectly points it, and if we interpret this plur. like בנים, Genesis 21:7, with Hitzig following Luther, as plur. of the category: take him as a pledge, hold fast by his person, so as not to suffer injury from strange people for whom he has become surety. But the Kerı̂ requires נכריּה (according to which Theodotion and the Syr., and, more distinctly still than these, the Targ. translates), and thus, indeed, it stands written, Proverbs 27:13, without the Kerı̂, thus Bathra 173b reads and writes also here. Either נכריּה is a strange woman, a prostitute, a maitresse for whom the unwise has made himself surety, or it is neut. for aliena res (lxx Proverbs 27:13, τὰ ἀλλότρια), a matter not properly belonging to this unwise person. We regard נכרים in this passage as original. בעד coincides with Proverbs 6:26 : it does not mean ἀντὶ, but ὑπέρ; "for strange people" is here equivalent to for the sake of, on account of strange people" is here equivalent to for the sake of, on account of strange people (χάριν τῶν ἀλλοτρίων, as the Venet. translates it).
Take - As a pledge, without which he ought not to be trusted. Of him - That is surety.
*More commentary available at chapter level.