Proverbs 6:2

Pro 6:2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

Ver. 2. Thou art snared,] i. e., Endangered to slavery or poverty, or both. Hence the proverb, Sponde, noxa praesto est; Give thy word, and thou art not far from a mischief. Shun, therefore, suretyship, if fairly thou canst, or if not, propound the worst, and undertake for no more than thou canst well perform without thy very great prejudice: ne, ut leo cassibus irretitus dixeris, Si praescivissem? lest thou, being got into the hamble trambles, come in too late with thy fool’s "Had I wist."

Thou art taken.] For a bargain binds a man by the law of nature, and of nations. Judah, though in a shameful business, would make good his engagement to the harlot. {Gen 38:23} Every godly man will do so, though it be to his own hindrance. {Psa 15:4} The Romans had a great care always to perform their word, insomuch that the first temple built in Rome was dedicated to the goddess Fidelity. The Athenians were so careful this way, that Atticus testis is used for one that keeps touch, and Attica fides is sure hold; as, contrarily, Punica fides, there was no hold to be taken of Carthaginian promises. Of a certain pope and his nephew, it is said that the one never spoke as he thought, the other never performed what he spoke. This was small to their commendation. Debt is a burden to every well-minded man; neither can he be at rest till he come to "owe nothing to any man but this, that ye love one another." {Rom 13:8} When Archbishop Cranmer discerned the storm which afterwards fell upon him in Queen Mary’s days, he took express order for the payment of all his debts and engagements, which when it was once done, a most joyful man was he, saith Master Foxe in his life. {a} For bills and obligations do mancipate the most free and ingenuous spirit, and so put a man out of aim that he can neither serve God without distraction nor do good to others, nor set his own state in any good order, but lives and dies entangled and puzzled with cares and snares; and, after a tedious and laborious life passed in a circle of fretting thoughts, he leaves at last, instead of better patrimony, a world of intricate troubles to his posterity, who are also "taken with the words of his mouth."

{a} Acts and Mon., vol. ii. p. 1541.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He forbiddeth us not to become surety one for another, according to the rule of charity, but that we consider for whom and after what sort, so that the creditor may not be defrauded.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth,.... Got into a snare out of which an escape is not easy; art no longer free, and thine own man, but under obligation to pay the debt if required; by the verbal agreement made and confirmed by striking hands, and this before witnesses;

thou art taken with the words of thy mouth; as in a net, and held fast therein and thereby, and cannot get loose without paying the debt, if the debtor does not, or without the leave of the creditor.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, “If thou art snared ... if thou art taken,” etc.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thy freedom is lost, and thou art now in bondage to another.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thou art snared with the words of thy month, etc.; i.e. the inevitable consequence of an inconsiderate undertaking of suretyship is that you become entangled and involved by your own premises, and hampered by self-imposed obligations. The Authorized Version rightly regards this as the conclusion. So the Vulgate. Others, however, carry on the hypothesis, and insert im, "if:" "If thou art snared," etc.; but without warrant (Zockler, Wordsworth, Plumptre). The LXX throws the thought into the form of a proverb, as "a strong net to a man are his own words." A distinction is to be drawn between the verbs rendered "entangled" and "taken;" the former, yakosh, signifying to be taken unwarily, off one"s guard; the latter, lakad, referring, as before observed, (cf. Pro_5:22) to the being stricken with the net. They are found in the same collocation in Isa_8:15, "Many among them shall be snared and taken. " The repetition of the phrase, "with the words of thy mouth," is not unintentional or purely rhetorical. It is made, as Delitzsch observes, to bring with greater force to the mind that the entanglements in which the surety is involved are the result of his own indiscretion.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.