Proverbs 6:1-11

CHAPTER 6

TEXT Proverbs 6:1-11

1.

My son, if thou art become surety for thy neighbor,

If thou hast striken thy hands for a stranger;

2.

Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth,

Thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

3.

Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself,

Seeing thou art come into the hand of thy neighbor:
Go, humble thyself, and importune thy neighbor;

4.

Give not sleep to thine eyes,

Nor slumber to thine eyelids;

5.

Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter,

And as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard;

Consider her ways, and be wise:

7.

Which having no chief,

Overseer, or ruler,

8.

Provideth her bread in the summer,

And gathereth her food in the harvest.

9.

How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?

When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

10.

Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to sleep:

11.

So shall thy poverty come as a robber,

And thy want as an armed man.

STUDY QUESTIONS OVER 6:1-11

1.

What does it mean to strike thy hands (Proverbs 6:1)?

2.

What is the figure of being snared (Proverbs 6:2)?

3.

How does one deliver himself in this setting (Proverbs 6:3)?

4.

What does importune mean (Proverbs 6:3)?

5.

Give no sleep or give not excessive sleep to thy eyelids (Proverbs 6:4)?

6.

Who is a fowler (Proverbs 6:5)?

7.

For what is ant especially known (Proverbs 6:6)?

8.

Do ants have no leader (Proverbs 6:7)?

9.

Comment on the strange habits of ants (Proverbs 6:8).

10.

Is late-sleeping for healthy people encouraged in the Bible (Proverbs 6:9)?

11.

What word in Proverbs 6:10 is emphatic?

12.

Comment on the possessions of an armed man and robber in the Bible days (Proverbs 6:11).

PARAPHRASE OF 6:1-11

Proverbs 6:1-5.

Son, if you endorse a note for someone you hardly know, guaranteeing his debt, you are in serious trouble. You may have trapped yourself by your agreement. Quick! Get out of it if you possibly can! Swallow your pride; don-'t let embarrassment stand in the way. Go and beg to have your name erased. Don-'t put it off. Do it now. Don-'t rest until you do. If you can get out of this trap you have saved yourself like a deer that escapes from a hunter, or a bird from the net.

Proverbs 6:6-11.

Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy fellow. Learn from their ways and be wise! For though they have no king to make them work, yet they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. But youall you do is sleep. When will you wake up? Let me sleep a little longer! Sure, just a little more! And as you sleep, poverty creeps upon you like a robber and destroys you; want attacks you in full armor.

COMMENTS ON 6:1-11

Proverbs 6:1. Pulpit Commentary: The sixth chapter embraces four distinct discourses, each of which is a warning. The subjects treated of are: (1) suretyshipProverbs 6:1-5; (2) slothProverbs 6:6-11; (3) maliceProverbs 6:12-19; and (4) adultery Proverbs 6:20 to the end. Our judgment would make perverseness the subject of Proverbs 6:12-19 instead of malice. At first it would appear that the subject being treated in Chapter 5 and to which the author returns to in the last part of this chapter has been abruptly interrupted by these three non-related subjects. But Pulpit Commentary says, The subject treated of in the preceding chapter is the happiness of the married life, and this is imperiled by incautious undertaking of suretyship, and suretyship, it is maintained induces sloth, while sloth leads to maliciousness. After treating of suretyship, sloth, and malice in succession, the teacher recurs to the former subject of his discourse, viz. impurity of life. Clarke: If thou pledge thyself in behalf of another, thou takest the burden off him, and placest it on thine own shoulders; and when he knows he has got one to stand between him and the demands of law and justice, he will feel little responsibility; his spirit of exertion will become crippled, and listlessness as to the event will be the consequences. His own character will suffer little; his property nothing, for his friend bears all the burden. Other passages on suretyship: Proverbs 11:15; Proverbs 17:18; Proverbs 20:16; Proverbs 22:26; Proverbs 27:13. From studying all of these verses Clarke comes to this conclusion on suretyship: Give what thou canst; but, except in extreme cases, be surety for no man.

Proverbs 6:2. Striking hands then was like signing a contract now. Sometimes one later sees his mistake of going surety for a party.

Proverbs 6:3. My son here shows the earnestness of the father's entreaty. He was to go to the creditor and agree to some kind of settlement that would release him from any further or future obligation. Do it now! says the father, and Proverbs 6:4 continues the urgency of doing it immediatelydo it before you have to stand good for your friend's debt.

Proverbs 6:4. Don-'t spend any time sleepingnot even one nightuntil you have cleared yourself in the matter. This expression for doing something immediately is also used in Psalms 132:4-5: I will not give sleep to mine eyes, Or slumber to mine eyelids; Until I find out a place for Jehovah.

Proverbs 6:5. Continuing the figure of a snare raised in Proverbs 6:2, he urges the son to take a lesson from the hunted roe or bird: they sense danger, they seek safety; they lose no time in doing so.

Proverbs 6:6. Ants are well distributed and are everywhere known for ambitious activity. To speak of his sleep-loving son as a sluggard was not complementary (it means lazy one), but it was fitting. Solomon's use of animals (roe and bird in y. 5 and ant in this verse) is in keeping with Job 12:7: Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; And the birds of the heavens, and they shall tell thee.

Proverbs 6:7. The ant is a fitting representative of true ambition, for an ant does not have to have a boss to make her work. And when did you ever see one that wasn-'t working? Remember Aesop's fable about the ant and the grasshopper?

Proverbs 6:8. While some who live in cold climates where ants become dormant during winter have argued that Proverbs is in error here in its representation of the habit of the ant, Tristrum in Pulpit Commentary says, Contrary to its habits in colder climates, the ant is not there dormant through the winter; and among the tamarisks of the Dead Sea it may be seen in January actively engaged in collecting the aphides and saccharine exudations...Two of the most common species of the Holy Land...are strictly seed-feeders and in summer lay up large stores of grain for winter use.

Proverbs 6:9. The same words as Proverbs 6:9-10 are found in Proverbs 24:33-34. Again he refers to his son as a sleeping sluggard. He is such a contrast to the industrious ant. Early to bed, early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise is an old saying not too well practiced by many modern youth who neither want to go to bed at night nor get up in the morning! Our verse is not arguing against a proper amount of sleep but against that over-sleeping that youth is sometimes guilty of (sleeping all morning if not called and made to get up). This is a good way to waste one's life and have little to show by way of accomplishment.

Proverbs 6:10. The emphasis is on little. Have you ever known an ambitionless young person to say, Let me sleep a little longer; or, I-'ll get up in a little while? But if left to him/her, the little becomes a lot.

Proverbs 6:11. A sluggard's poverty is also referred to in other passages: He becometh poor that worketh with a slack hand (Proverbs 10:4); The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing (Proverbs 13:4); The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; Therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing (Proverbs 20:4). A robber was always in need, and an armed man was a poorly-paid man (compare Luke 3:14). In other words, a little sleep, a little slumber, and a little folding of the hands lead to a lot of poverty! The expression, -thy poverty-' and -thy want-', represent the destitution of the sluggard as flowing directly from his own habit of self-indulgence (Pulpit Commentary).

TEST QUESTIONS OVER 6:1-11

1.

Is there really a change of subjects beginning in Proverbs 6:1?

2.

Striking hands then was like ............... now (Proverbs 6:2).

3.

What does my son in Proverbs 6:3 indicate?

4.

How soon was the son to go to the creditor (Proverbs 6:4)?

5.

What 3 things do the roe and bird do when the hunter comes around (Proverbs 6:5)?

6.

What uncomplimentary name did the father call his sleeping son (Proverbs 6:6)?

7.

What fable of Aesop does Proverbs 6:7 recall to one's mind?

8.

What discussion has arisen over what Proverbs 6:8 says about the habit of the ant?

9.

What about many modern youth and late-morning sleeping (Proverbs 6:9)?

10.

Give a modern statement or 2 of modern-day sleepers using little (Proverbs 6:10).

11.

Does the Bible represent a sluggard as one likely to become rich or to have to live in poverty (Proverbs 6:11)?