What Does Proverbs 20:16 Mean?
Take his garment, for he has bound himself for a stranger; and for a foreign woman, take his bond.
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
Take his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.THE KEY
A stranger’s debt can reach the guarantor’s own covering because a surety has bound himself into the obligation.
THE MEANING
When you stand surety for a stranger, your own garment becomes reachable as collateral; another person’s obligation lands on your body and property. The verse presses the same exposure around a strange woman: a pledge is taken from the man himself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that standing behind another’s debt costs you nothing: your own covering is placed at risk.
THE ROOT
עָרַב
ʿārav
GROWS FROM
ערב
ʿ-r-b
To become surety, to pledge oneself as security for another.
“he has bound himself” in this verse is ʿārav. The verb names the guarantor’s act of making himself answerable, not just a role in someone else’s finances. The related noun עֵרָבוֹן (ʿērāḇôn), meaning “pledge” or “security,” gives that entanglement a tangible form: what is pledged can be taken.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārēv: A person who stands as security for another’s obligation.
עָרֵב
It names the person exposed when the stranger’s obligation goes unpaid.
ʿērāḇôn: Something given as a guarantee.
עֵרָבוֹן
It shows how becoming answerable turns into a tangible claim on what belongs to the guarantor.
חַבְלֵהוּ
ḥavlēhû
GROWS FROM
חבל
ḥ-b-l
To bind or take as a pledge; the same consonants also name a cord.
“take his bond” in this verse is ḥavlēhû. The pledge is an act done to the man himself, not merely an agreement on paper. The related word for a cord makes the binding visible: collateral ties the guarantor’s own assets to the obligation.
ALSO GROWS
ḥével: A cord used to tie or bind.
חֶבֶל
This related word makes the pledge’s binding force concrete.
ḥāval: To take something as security for an obligation.
חָבַל
It names the creditor’s act of holding the guarantor’s property against the debt.
THE PATTERN
A guarantee draws the guarantor’s own security into another person’s obligation.
I will be the pledge for him. From my hand you will seek him. If I do not bring him to you and stand him before you, then let me have missed the mark toward you all the days.Do not be among those who strike the palm, or among those who mingle themselves in debts.By this much, Jesus has become the pledge of a stronger covenant.THE THREAD
My son, if you have entangled yourself for your companion, if you have struck your palms with a stranger.The same Hebrew root, עָרַב (ʿārav), names becoming surety in both verses. Proverbs 6:1 sets the pledge beside the stranger’s obligation, showing how the guarantor’s liability begins when he binds himself to it.
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