What Does Proverbs 27:13 Mean?
Take his garment, for he has given surety for a stranger; and for the foreign woman, take a pledge from him.
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
The proverb makes a promise for another person tangible: the guarantor’s own garment can become the collateral.
THE MEANING
When you guarantee another person’s obligation, your own covering can be claimed for the debt. The verse carries that warning through both a stranger and a strange woman, making the cost of the guarantee concrete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that taking responsibility for someone else’s debt carries no personal cost: the guarantor’s own security is at stake.
THE ROOT
עָרַב
ʿāraḇ
GROWS FROM
ע־ר־ב
To stand surety or pledge oneself as security.
“he has given surety for” in this verse is ʿāraḇ. The word names placing yourself behind another person’s obligation, not merely offering reassurance. A related noun means a pledge or deposit, making the garment in this verse a visible measure of what the guarantee can cost.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārēḇ: A guarantor; one who stands surety.
עָרֵב
It names the person who personally backs another’s obligation.
ʿērāḇôn: A pledge or security deposit.
עֵרָבוֹן
It shows the same root in the concrete security given to guarantee an obligation.
חַבְלֵהוּ
ḥablēhû
GROWS FROM
ח־ב־ל
To bind or take as security; to take a pledge.
“take a pledge from him” in this verse is ḥablēhû. The command rendered “take a pledge of him” carries the sense of holding something as security. A related word means cord, giving the pledge a binding quality: the debt reaches into what the guarantor owns and can lose.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāḇal: To take as a pledge or security.
חָבַל
This verb names the act demanded in the verse.
ḥeḇel: A cord or rope.
חֶבֶל
The shared root letters bring out the binding image beneath the act of holding collateral.
THE PATTERN
A guarantee can make the guarantor’s own security answer for someone else’s obligation.
My son, if you have entangled yourself for your companion, if you have struck your palms with a stranger. You are snared in the words of your mouth; you are caught in the words of your mouth.If you ever bind your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall turn back to him what you bound by the time the sun goes down. For it is his only covering, his garment for his skin; in what shall he lie down? And when he cries out to me, I will hear and respond, for I bend toward him.If he has been out of alignment with you, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.THE THREAD
He who mingles himself with a stranger's pledge smarts for it, but the one who hates the striking of hands rests secure.The Hebrew root עָרַב (ʿāraḇ), “to stand surety,” appears in both proverbs. Proverbs 27:13 shows the cost as a garment taken for security; this verse states the consequence of guaranteeing for a stranger directly.
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