Proverbs 6:5

6:1-5 If we live as directed by the word of God, we shall find it profitable even in this present world. We are stewards of our worldly substance, and have to answer to the Lord for our disposal of it; to waste it in rash schemes, or such plans as may entangle us in difficulties and temptations, is wrong. A man ought never to be surety for more than he is able and willing to pay, and can afford to pay, without wronging his family; he ought to look upon every sum he is engaged for, as his own debt. If we must take all this care to get our debts to men forgiven, much more to obtain forgiveness with God. Humble thyself to him, make sure of Christ as thy Friend, to plead for thee; pray earnestly that thy sins may be pardoned, and that thou mayest be kept from going down to the pit.

Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter,.... As such a creature, which is very swift, when it is got into the hand of the hunter, will strive and struggle to get out; so should a man try all ways and means to get out of his suretyship engagements, especially when he finds himself liable to danger by it; this he should do "immediately" and "out of hand" (g), as the phrase here used sometimes signifies with the Jewish writers; and as a bird from the hand of the fowler; another metaphor, signifying the same thing. (g) "statim", De Dieu; "subito", Noldius, p. 859. No. 1630. "ilico, repente", so some in Eliae Tishbi, p. 143.

Better, "Do this now, O my son, and free thyself when thou hast come into thy friend's house; go, how thyself down (perhaps "stamp with thy foot," or "hasten"), press hotly upon thy friend. By persuasion, and if need be, by threats, get back the bond which thou hast been entrapped into signing:" The "friend" is, as before, the companion, not the creditor.

Verse 5. - The struggles of the roe and the bird to escape from the snare are employed figuratively to describe the efforts which the surety is to make to tear and free himself from his friend. From the hand of the hunter (Hebrew, miyyad ); literally, from the hand , as shown by the italics. The variation in all the ancient versions, with the exception of the Vulgate and Venetian, which read "from the snare," suggests that the original text was mippath instead of miyyad. The Hebrew yad , "hand," may, however, be used by metonymy for a toil or gin; but this is improbable, as no example of this kind can be found. With regard to the addition, "of the hunter," though this does not occur in the original, the parallelism would seem to clearly require it, and Bottcher maintains, but upon insufficient evidence, and against the reading of all manuscripts, which omit it, that the word tsayyad , equivalent to "of the hunter," formed part of the original text, but has fallen out. The plain reading, "from the hand," may, however, be used absolutely, as in 1 Kings 20:42 , "Because thou hast let go out of thy hand (miyyad)," in which case the hand will not be that of the hunter, but that of the person for whom the one is surety. Roe . There is a paronomasia in ts'vi , equivalent to "roe," and tsiphor , equivalent to "bird," of the original, which is lost in the Authorized Version.

The ts'vi is the "roe" or "gazelle," so named from the beauty of its form (see also Song of Solomon 2:7-9, 17 ; Song of Solomon 3:5 ; Song of Solomon 8:14 ; 1 Kings 5:3 ; Isaiah 13:14 ). Tsippor is a generic word, and represents any small bird. It is derived from the twittering or chirping noise which the bird makes, the root being tsaphar , "to chirp, or twitter." As to its identification with the sparrow, Passer montanus , or the blue thrush, Petrocossyphus cyanens (see 'Bible Animals,' Rev. J.G. Wood, p. 405, edit. 1876). Proverbs 6:5

The naked מיּד is not to be translated "immediately;" for in this sense the word is rabbinical, not biblical. The versions (with exception of Jerome and the Graec. Venet.) translate as if the word were מפּח [out of the snare]. Bertheau prefers this reading, and Bttcher holds חיּד [a hunter] to have fallen out after מיד. It is not a parallelism with reservation; for a bird-catcher is not at the same time a gazelle-hunter. The author, if he has so written, has conceived of מיד, as at 1 Kings 20:42 , as absolute, and connected it with הנּצל: tear thyself free like the gazelle from the hand into which thou hast fallen (Hitzig); according to which, the section should be accentuated thus: הנצל כצבי מיד. צבי, Aram. טבי, Arab. zaby, is the gazelle (Arab. ghazâl), so called from its elegance; צפּור, the bird, from its whistling (צפר, Arab. ṣafar, R. צף, cf. Arab. saffârat, the whistling of a bird), Arab. safar, whistler (with prosthesis, 'aṣafwar, warbler, Psalm. p. 794). The bird-catcher is called יקושׁ (from יקשׁ, after the form יכל, cog. קושׁ, Isaiah 29:21 , נקשׁ, R. קש), after the form בּגוד (fem. בּגודה), or יקוּשׁ; one would think that the Kametz, after the form kâtwl (vid., under Isaiah 1:17 ), must here be fixed, but in Jeremiah 5:26 the word is vocalized יקוּשׁים.

[Bible] 6:1. My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, thou hast engaged fast thy hand to a stranger, 6:2. Thou art ensnared with the words of thy mouth, and caught with thy own words. 6:3. Do, therefore, my son, what I say, and deliver thyself: because thou art fallen into the hand of thy neighbour. Run about, make haste, stir up thy friend: 6:4. Give not sleep to thy eyes, neither let thy eyelids slumber. 6:5. Deliver thyself as a doe from the hand, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. 6:6. Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom: 6:7. Which, although she hath no guide, nor master, nor captain, 6:8. Provideth her meat for herself in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. 6:9. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 6:10. Thou wilt sleep a little, thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold thy hands a little to sleep: 6:11. And want shall come upon thee, as a traveller, and poverty as a man armed. But if thou be diligent, thy harvest shall come as a fountain, and want shall flee far from thee. 6:12. A man that is an apostate, an unprofitable man, walketh with a perverse mouth, 6:13. He winketh with the eyes, presseth with the foot, speaketh with the finger. 6:14. With a wicked heart he deviseth evil, and at all times he soweth discord. 6:15. To such a one his destruction shall presently come, and he shall suddenly be destroyed, and shall no longer have any remedy. 6:16. Six things there are, which the Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth: 6:17. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 6:18. A heart that deviseth wicked plots, feet that are swift to run into mischief, 6:19. A deceitful witness that uttereth lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren. 6:20. My son, keep the commandments of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. 6:21. Bind them in thy heart continually, and put them about thy neck.