My child, if you have gone
surety for your neighbor, if you have guaranteed the bond of a stranger,2 if you have committed
yourself with your lips, if through words of yours you have been entrapped, 3 do this, my child, to
extricate yourself -- since you have put yourself in the power of your
neighbor: go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbor, 4 give your eyes no sleep,
your eyelids no rest,5 break free like a gazelle from the trap, like a bird from the
fowler's clutches.
Whoever goes bail for a
stranger does himself harm, but one who shuns going surety is safe.
Whoever offers guarantees
lacks sense and goes surety for a neighbor.
Take the man's clothes! He
has gone surety for a stranger. Take a pledge from him to the profit of persons
unknown!
Do not be one of those who
go guarantor, who go surety for debts: 27
if you have no means of paying your bed will be taken from under you.
Take his garment when he becomes surety
for a stranger; and for an adulterous woman hold him in pledge.
Do not stand surety beyond
your means; if you do stand surety, be prepared to pay up.
A good man will go surety
for his neighbor; only a shameless wretch would desert him.
Do not forget the favor
your guarantor has done you; he has given his life for you.16 A sinner is careless of
his guarantor's prosperity, the ungrateful forgets his deliverer.
Going surety has ruined
many who were prosperous, tossing them about in a heavy sea. 18 It has driven the
powerful from home to wander among foreign nations.
A wicked man in a hurry to
stand guarantor in the hope of profit, is hurrying to be sentenced.
Come to your neighbor’s
help as far as you can, but take care not to fall into the same plight.
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