If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
The verse pictures a debtor who has nothing to pay having even his bed taken from under him by the lender. Applied to guaranteeing another person's debt, it warns that one who becomes surety and cannot pay may lose even the basic necessities of life and home, including the bed. It therefore cautions against taking on another's financial obligation without the means to meet it, teaching that surety should be given only for what the guarantor can afford to pay without harming or ruining his own household and family. Signing must not rest on the assumption that the borrower will repay or be treated as a harmless formality, but only with a real willingness to give the promised amount outright.
In the strictest reading it forbids going security for another, so that when asked the duty is to refuse and get away from it. Going security brings lifelong enslavement and brings a weary existence of want, sickness, and beggary upon wife and children. To take on such an obligation otherwise is foolish and wrong.
The verse pictures a debtor who has nothing to pay having even his bed taken from under him by the lender. Applied to guaranteeing another person's debt, it warns that one who becomes surety and cannot pay may lose even the basic necessities of life and home, including the bed. It therefore cautions against taking on another's financial obligation without the means to meet it, teaching that surety should be given only for what the guarantor can afford to pay without harming or ruining his own household and family. Signing must not rest on the assumption that the borrower will repay or be treated as a harmless formality, but only with a real willingness to give the promised amount outright.
In the strictest reading it forbids going security for another, so that when asked the duty is to refuse and get away from it. Going security brings lifelong enslavement and brings a weary existence of want, sickness, and beggary upon wife and children. To take on such an obligation otherwise is foolish and wrong.