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Proverbs 22:27

in Proverbs 22

If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

If thou hast not wherewith to pay, Why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

KJV

If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

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This verse in Proverbs 22

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
He - i. e., The man to whom the surety has been given. The practice of distraining for payment of a debt, seems, though prohibited Exo 22:27, to have become common.

This site's exposition

Do not make friends with an angry man

on Proverbs 22:24-27

The warning against making friends with an angry or hot-tempered man concerns chosen company, and the danger is contagion. Giving pledges and putting up security for debts repeats the book's recurring warning. The consequence is plain, the debtor's last possession seized for a debt he never ran up himself.

This site's exposition

why should your bed be taken

Albert Barnes identifies the one who takes the bed as the creditor who holds the pledge. Seizing a debtor's goods for payment seems to have become common in his reading, though Exodus 22:27 forbade it. The guarantor who cannot pay loses even his bed.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

If thou hast nothing to pay,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

If thou hast nothing to pay - Should any man give security for more than he is worth? If he does, is it not a fraud on the very face of the transaction? Why should he take away thy bed from under thee? - The creditor will not pursue the debtor whom he knows to be worth nothing; but he will sue the bail or bondsman. And why shouldst thou put thyself in such circumstances as to expose thyself to the loss even of thy bed?

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • אִם־if

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • אֵֽין־not

    ʾein-H369 →789 times

  • לְךָ֥[belongs] to you

    lekha

  • לְשַׁלֵּ֑םto pay

    leshalemH7999 →116 times

  • לָ֥מָּה<to> why?

    lamahH4100 →752 times

  • יִקַּ֥חwill anyone take

    yikachH3947 →966 times

  • מִ֝שְׁכָּבְךָ֗bed your

    mishkavekhaH4904 →

  • מִתַּחְתֶּֽיךָ׃from under you

    mitachteikhaH8478 →505 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

4 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    2 Kings 4:1

    Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor…

    it leads to

    • Matthew 18:25

      Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned.

    • 2 Kings 2:3

      Then the sons of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied. “Do…

    • Psalms 147:11

      The LORD is pleased with those who fear Him, who hope in His loving devotion.

    • Nehemiah 5:2–5

      Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. We must get grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

    • Leviticus 25:39–41

      If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.

  • Through

    Proverbs 20:16

    Take the garment of the one who posts security for a stranger; get collateral if it is for a foreigner.

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 27:13

      Take the garment of him who posts security for a stranger; get collateral if it is for a foreigner.

    • Exodus 22:26–27

      If you take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset,

    • Proverbs 11:15

      He who puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer, but the one who hates indebtedness is secure.

Where this verse is studied

About Proverbs

The Judgment of Solomon, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Judgment of Solomon, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Proverbs: the study guide →Read Proverbs 22 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).

Read on in Proverbs 22 →