What Does Proverbs 6:1 Mean?
My son, if you have entangled yourself for your companion, if you have struck your palms with a stranger.
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
My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,THE KEY
The handclasp gives a promise a body, binding you to the consequences of another person’s obligation.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you when a promise makes another person’s obligation part of your own. The handclasp gives that bond a visible form, and its consequences can reach you through someone else’s debt. The words “friend” and “stranger” place closeness and unfamiliarity within the same warning about becoming surety.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Friendship or good intentions make another person’s obligation consequence-free for you.
THE ROOT
עָרַבְתָּ
ʿāravtā
GROWS FROM
ע־ר־ב
ʿ-r-b
To pledge oneself or stand as guarantor.
“entangled yourself” in this verse is ʿāravtā. The word centers a pledge-bearing relationship: the guarantor becomes bound to what another owes. Its related noun עֵרָבוֹן (ʿērāḇôn, “pledge” or “security”) names the assurance behind that bond, showing how surety makes another’s obligation reach the guarantor.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārēv: Guarantor; surety.
עָרֵב
This noun names the person who carries the pledge, making the obligation personal.
ʿērāḇôn: Pledge; security.
עֵרָבוֹן
This related noun names what stands behind a promise, giving the bond a tangible form.
תָּקַעְתָּ
tāqaʿtā
GROWS FROM
ת־ק־ע
t-q-ʿ
To thrust, drive, or set firmly in place; here, to strike or clasp hands.
“struck” in this verse is tāqaʿtā. The verb makes the pledge physical: the handclasp sets the agreement in place. Elsewhere this root can describe pitching a tent or sounding a trumpet, actions that establish a presence or send a signal.
ALSO GROWS
tāqaʿ: To pitch or plant firmly, as a tent (Genesis 31:25).
תָּקַע
The root’s sense of setting something in place illuminates how the handclasp gives the pledge a firm shape.
tāqaʿ: To sound or blow a trumpet (Joshua 6:4).
תָּקַע
The root also describes an act that sends a signal; here, the struck hand signals a binding commitment.
THE PATTERN
A pledge binds the guarantor to another person’s obligation, giving a promise consequences and reach.
For your servant pledged himself for the lad to my father, saying, If I do not bring him to you, then I shall have missed the mark against my father all the days.He who mingles himself with a stranger's pledge smarts for it, but the one who hates the striking of hands rests secure.By this much, Jesus has become the pledge of a stronger covenant.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.Both verses use the root ע־ר־ב (ʿ-r-b) for standing surety. Proverbs 11:15 brings the consequences into view, making plain the liability already held in the handclasp of Proverbs 6:1.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us