What Does Proverbs 11:15 Mean?
He who mingles himself with a stranger's pledge smarts for it, but the one who hates the striking of hands rests secure.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretiship is sure.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.
“striking of hands” in this verse is toq'im. 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.
“rests secure” in this verse is boteach. 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 you have entangled yourself for your companion, if you have struck your palms with a stranger.A man lacking heart strikes his palm, and becomes surety before his friend.He does not fear evil report; his heart is set firm, leaning his weight on the LORD.THE THREAD
My son, if you have entangled yourself for your companion, if you have struck your palms 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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