ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Proverbs 6

Prov. 6:1–5 security. Promising to pay someone else’s debt if he does not pay it is described as a trap in which one’s life is endangered. A person should not put himself in a position in which his labor or wealth could be wasted because someone else does not pay his debts. This does not mean that putting up security for someone is morally wrong in every situation, but rather that it is generally unwise (see 11:15; 17:18; 20:16; 22:26; 27:13).

Prov. 6:3–5 If the son has already given security for a loan, he is urged to save himself from the whim of the one in debt and plead urgently with him. The point of such pleading is made clear by the comparison to game caught in a trap. The son should focus all his energy on finding a way out of such a situation and thus save himself from ruin.

Prov. 6:7 The fact that the ant has no chief, officer, or ruler shows that it has initiative, which the sluggard lacks.

Prov. 6:10 A little sleep, a little slumber. The sluggard may rationalize his late rising and his too-frequent naps as “just a little,” but they destroy his productivity.

Prov. 6:11 The poverty and want that the sluggard’s idleness causes are compared to external forces that will just as surely leave him in poverty (a robber and an armed man).

Prov. 6:12–14 A worthless person, a wicked man describes someone who lacks any desire to act righteously. devises. A worthless person’s communication comes from a perverted heart that intends to create distrust and suspicion among others (continually sowing discord).

Prov. 6:16–19 The literary device of naming six things . . . seven indicates that the list is representative rather than exhaustive (compare 30:15–16, 18–19, 21–31). It also draws particular attention to the final item as the focus of God’s hatred. It is easy to agree that God hates the first six items, but it is also easy to overlook the seventh (one who sows discord), and thus the author surprises the reader.

Prov. 6:20 your mother’s teaching. In chs. 1–9, usually only the father is mentioned. The mother as teacher appears here and in 1:8. The young man’s mother represents respect for the institutions of family and marriage.

Prov. 6:26 Being with a prostitute can be as cheap as a loaf of bread, but having an affair with a married woman can cost the man his very life.

Prov. 6:27–31 The father uses two comparisons to show how adultery leads to disaster. First, he says that one who engages in foolish behavior will suffer for it (vv. 27–29); embracing a neighbor’s wife is like taking fire to one’s chest. Second, he reasons that if someone who steals due to need has to pay a severe penalty, then someone who commits an unnecessary offense will suffer a greater penalty (vv. 30–31).

Prov. 6:35 He will accept no compensation. The offended husband will not be satisfied until you (that is, the son being addressed, vv. 20–25) have paid the full penalty.