Proverbs 6:2

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

Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth - the consequent of the antecedent supposition "If-if" (Proverbs 6:1).

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

Proverbs 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. Every godly man will do so, though it be to his own hindrance. 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." 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. 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." Acts and Mon., vol. ii. p. 1541.

Eleventh Address. Chap. 6. Proverbs 6:1-5. The Surety“From the solemn principle announced at the close of the last chapter (Proverbs 6:23) the teacher passes … to illustrate the truth by three examples, that of the Surety (Proverbs 6:1-5), that of the Sluggard (Proverbs 6:6-11), and that of the Worthless Man (Proverbs 6:12-19). And then because the horrors of impurity are the most striking and terrible instance of all, this subject coming up again at Proverbs 6:20, like the dark ground tone of the picture, finally runs into the long and detailed description of ch. 7.” Horton, ch. vii. p. 79.

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

1, 2. If thou be surety — It is probable, as suggested by several critics, that àí, (im,) if, is to be mentally carried forward, not only to the second clause of the first verse, but also to the two