What Does Proverbs 11:15 Mean in the King James?
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretiship is sure.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse sets a pledged hand against a trusting one: security lies in refusing to bind yourself to a stranger’s obligation.
THE MEANING
When you become surety for a stranger, you take the obligation into your own hands and may suffer its cost. The verse places security in refusing that pledge: the one who hates the hand-striking that binds a guarantee is secure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that proving your reliability requires taking on another person’s obligation.
THE ROOT
תּוֹקְעִים
toq'im
GROWS FROM
תקע
taqaʿ
To strike, thrust, or drive in.
The word rendered “suretiship” comes from the language of striking hands: a guarantee is an enacted bond, not just an idea. That physical pledge stands opposite the verse’s picture of security as trust.
ALSO GROWS
toqea: One who strikes hands or becomes surety.
תּוֹקֵעַ
This branch makes the pledge in the verse an act that binds the guarantor.
teqiʿah: A trumpet blast.
תְּקִיעָה
The root also names a forceful sound; here its hand-striking sense shows how a pledge is made concrete.
בּוֹטֵחַ
boteach
GROWS FROM
בטח
batach
To trust, rely on, or feel secure.
The Hebrew for “secure” belongs to the root of trusting and relying. The verse contrasts that settled confidence with the hand that binds itself to another person’s obligation.
ALSO GROWS
batach: To trust or rely on.
בָּטַח
This is the action beneath the verse’s description of the secure person.
mivtach: Trust, confidence, or refuge.
מִבְטָח
This branch names what someone relies on, showing security as confidence rather than a pledge of another’s debt.
THE PATTERN
A person’s security is shaped by what they bind themselves to and where they place their trust.
My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,A man void of understanding striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend.He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.THE THREAD
My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,The hand-striking here comes from the same Hebrew root that gives Proverbs 11:15 its word for suretiship. The earlier verse shows the moment the pledge is made: the hand itself enacts the bond.
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