Verse 22
He shall be holden with the cords of his sins - Most people who follow unlawful pleasures, think they can give them up whenever they please; but sin repeated becomes customary; custom soon engenders habit; and habit in the end assumes the form of necessity; the man becomes bound with his own cords, and so is led captive by the devil at his will.
Verse 23
He shall die without instruction - This is most likely, and it is a general case; but even these may repent and live.
Introduction
Exhortations against becoming surety for others, [Pro 6:1-5]; against idleness, from the example of the ant, [Pro 6:6-11]; description of a worthless person, [Pro 6:12-15]; seven things hateful to God, [Pro 6:16-19]; the benefits of instruction, [Pro 6:20-23]; farther exhortations against bad women, and especially against adultery, [Pro 6:24-33]; what may be expected from jealousy, [Pro 6:34], [Pro 6:35].
Verse 1
If thou be surety for thy friend - לרעך lereacha, for thy neighbor; i.e., any person. 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 consequence. His own character will suffer little; his property nothing, for his friend bears all the burden: and perhaps the very person for whom he bore this burden treats him with neglect; and, lest the restoration of the pledge should be required, will avoid both the sight and presence of his friend. Give what thou canst; but, except in extreme cases, be surety for no man. Striking or shaking hands when the mouth had once made the promise, was considered as the ratification of the engagement; and thus the man became ensnared with the words of his mouth.
Verse 3
Do this - deliver thyself - Continue to press him for whom thou art become surety, to pay his creditor; give him no rest till he do it, else thou mayest fully expect to be left to pay the debt.
Verse 5
Deliver thyself as a roe - צבי tsebi, the antelope. If thou art got into the snare, get out if thou possibly canst; make every struggle and excertion, as the antelope taken in the net, and the bird taken in the snare would, in order to get free from thy captivity.
Verse 6
Go to the ant, thou sluggard - נמלה nemalah, the ant, is a remarkable creature for foresight, industry, and economy. At the proper seasons they collect their food - not in the summer to lay up for the winter; for they sleep during the winter, and eat not; and therefore such hoards would be to them useless; but when the food necessary for them is most plentiful, then they collect it for their consumption in the proper seasons. No insect is more laborious, not even the bee itself; and none is more fondly attached to or more careful of its young, than the ant. When the young are in their aurelia state, in which they appear like a small grain of rice, they will bring them out of their nests, and lay them near their holes, for the benefit of the sun; and on the approach of rain, carefully remove them, and deposit them in the nest, the hole or entrance to which they will cover with a piece of thin stone or tile, to prevent the wet from getting in. It is a fact that they do not lay up any meat for winter; nor does Solomon, either here or in [Pro 30:25], assert it. He simply says that they provide their food in summer, and gather it in harvest; these are the most proper times for a stock to be laid in for their consumption; not in winter; for no such thing appears in any of their nests, nor do they need it, as they sleep during that season; but for autumn, during which they wake and work. Spring, summer, and autumn, they are incessant in their labor; and their conduct affords a bright example to men.
Verse 10
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber - This, if not the language, is the feeling of the sluggard. The ant gathers its food in summer and in harvest, and sleeps in winter when it has no work to do. If the sluggard would work in the day, and sleep at night, it would be all proper. The ant yields him a lesson of reproach.
Verse 11
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth - That is, with slow, but surely approaching steps.
Thy want as an armed man - That is, with irresistible fury; and thou art not prepared to oppose it. The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic add the following clause to this verse: - "But if thou wilt be diligent, thy harvest shall be as a fountain; and poverty shall flee far away from thee."
It is also thus in the Old MS. Bible: If forsothe unslow thou shul ben; shul comen as a welle thi rip; and nede fer shal fleen fro thee.
Verse 12
A naughty person - אדם בליעל adam beliyal, "Adam good for nothing." When he lost his innocence. A man apostata; Old MS. Bible.
A wicked man - איש און ish aven. He soon became a general transgressor after having departed from his God. All his posterity, unless restored by Divine grace, are men of Belial, and sinners by trade; and most of them, in one form or other, answer the character here given. They yield their members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
Verse 13
He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers - These things seem to be spoken of debauchees, and the following quotation from Ovid, Amor. Iib. i., El. iv., ver. 15, shoots the whole process of the villany spoken of by Solomon:
Cum premit ille torum, vultu comes ipsa modestoIbis, ut accumbas: clam mihi tange pedem.
Me specta, nutusque meos, vultum que loquacemExcipe furtivas, et refer ipsa, notas.
Verba superciliis sine voce loquentia dicamVerba leges digitis, verba notata mero.
Cum tibi succurrit Veneris lascivia nostrae,Purpureas tenero pollice tange genas, etc., etc.
The whole elegy is in the same strain: it is translated in Garth's Ovid, but cannot be introduced here.
Verse 14
He deviseth mischief - He plots schemes and plans to bring it to pass.
He soweth discord - Between men and their wives, by seducing the latter from their fidelity. See the preceding quotation.
Verse 15
Suddenly shall he be broken - Probably alluding to some punishment of the adulterer, such as being stoned to death. A multitude shall join together, and so overwhelm him with stones, that he shall have his flesh and bones broken to pieces, and there shall be no remedy - none to deliver or pity him.
Verse 16
These six - doth the Lord hate -
1. A proud look - exalted eyes; those who will not condescend to look on the rest of mankind.
2. A lying tongue - he who neither loves nor tells truth.
3. Hands that shed innocent blood, whether by murder or by battery.
4. A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations - the heart that fabricates such, lays the foundation, builds upon it, and completes the superstructure of iniquity.
5. Feet that be swift in running to mischief - he who works iniquity with greediness.
6. A false witness that speaketh lies - one who, even on his oath before a court of justice, tells any thing but the truth.
Seven are an abomination unto him - נפשו naphsho, "to his soul." The seventh is, he that soweth discord among brethren - he who troubles the peace of a family, of a village, of the state; all who, by lies and misrepresentations, strive to make men's minds evil-affected towards their brethren.