Proverbschapter 6
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Speaks with:Proverbs 7×5Proverbs 6×4Proverbs 10×3Psalms 119×3Proverbs 11×2Proverbs 18×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Four snares in one chapter: the rash pledge (deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter); the sluggard sent to the ant ('consider her ways, and be wise'; the worthless person who winketh and soweth discord; and the six things Jehovah hateth, yea seven that are an abomination), haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a wicked-devising heart, mischief-running feet, a false witness, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Then back to adultery: 'Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?'
Context
Poetry · Solomon, Agur, Lemuel — Proverbs overview
- A. 1–5 The Rash Pledge: Deliver Thyself as a Roe From the Hunter
- B. 6–11 Go to the Ant, Thou Sluggard
- C. 12–19 Six Things Jehovah Hateth, Yea, Seven
- D. 20–35 Can a Man Take Fire in His Bosom and Not Be Burned?
The outline
A.The Rash Pledge: Deliver Thyself as a Roe From the Huntervv. 1 to 5
Read vv. 1 to 5 →B.Go to the Ant, Thou Sluggardvv. 6 to 11
Read vv. 6 to 11 →C.Six Things Jehovah Hateth, Yea, Sevenvv. 12 to 19
Read vv. 12 to 19 →D.Can a Man Take Fire in His Bosom and Not Be Burned?vv. 20 to 35
Read vv. 20 to 35 →
The world behind this chapter
Proverbs 6The history
Standing surety meant clapping your hand into another man's hand in front of witnesses and promising to cover his debt. There was no insurance and no bankruptcy court. If he failed, the creditor came to you, and the ladder down went cloak, then tools, then field, then your children into service until the debt was worked off. "Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter" means go back tonight and get out of it.
The ant is chosen because everyone had watched harvester ants drag seed into their nests along the field edges. Israel's grain year gave you one narrow window: barley in spring, wheat a few weeks later, and if you slept through it there was no second chance until the next year. Poverty "as one that travelleth" is a picture of a man arriving at your door with a bag over his shoulder — unhurried and certain.
The contrast at the end of the chapter is a legal one. A starving thief who is caught makes restitution — the Law required repayment several times over, and the proverb says a man can survive that. But adultery put a man in the hands of a jealous husband, and no payment settled it. "He will not regard any ransom" is a statement about what money cannot buy back.
What it meant to them
The list of seven things the LORD hates would have been heard as a courtroom docket: a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a false witness, the man who sows discord among brothers. Every one of them wrecks a community that depends on neighbours trusting neighbours.
And the sequence of the chapter is deliberate. Debt, laziness, and adultery are put side by side because each one is a slow decision that looks survivable right up until it is not.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Proverbs 6. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.