Proverbs 22:26 · World English Bible
Proverbs 22:26 Meaning Don’t You Be One of Those
Don’t you be one of those who strike hands, of those who are collateral for debts.
What does Proverbs 22:26 mean?
To strike hands over another's debt is to take a burden of guilt that was never one's own and swear to carry it. The mind does this constantly, pledging itself as guarantor for sins, promising to hold the account of who owes what and to pay in suffering if the ledger falls short.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Proverbs 22:26 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
To strike hands over another's debt is to take a burden of guilt that was never one's own and swear to carry it. The mind does this constantly, pledging itself as guarantor for sins, promising to hold the account of who owes what and to pay in suffering if the ledger falls short. It calls this loyalty, but it is really the ego's insistence that guilt is real and must be secured by someone.
Love keeps no such bond, because it sees no debt to be answered for. A mind that refuses to stand surety is not abandoning another; it is declining to make guilt binding, and in that refusal both are released from a contract fear alone required.
Striking hands, surety: the pledge to hold another's guilt as a binding debt, the promise to pay in suffering for a wrong that was never real.
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Live Proverbs 22:26 today
- Think of a guilt you are carrying on someone else's behalf, a family member's choices, a friend's mess. Set it down for today and see whether anything actually falls apart.
- The next time someone apologizes to you, say it's fine and mean it, without the small reservation that keeps the account open. No conditions attached.
- When a project goes wrong at work and the room starts looking for who will wear it, don't volunteer to carry the blame and don't hand it to anyone else. Fix what can be fixed and leave the ledger closed.
What am I promising to pay for that nobody actually owes?
The same truth in other traditions
Tao Te Ching 79
The wise hold the left half of the agreement and never press their claim. They keep no ledger of who owes what.
Zen · the two monks and the river
One monk carried a stranger across the water and set her down. The other carried her the rest of the day in his mind.
Judaism · Shmita, the release year
Every seventh year debts were simply cancelled, not paid down. Some accounts are closed by letting go rather than by settling.
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