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Proverbs 27:13 · World English Bible

Proverbs 27:13 Meaning Take His Garment When He Puts Up

Take his garment when he puts up collateral for a stranger. Hold it for a wayward woman!

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What does Proverbs 27:13 mean?

A pledge given for a stranger is the mind binding itself to what it does not know and cannot trust, and every such bargain the ego makes is struck in the dark. The garment demanded is the covering torn away, the exposure that follows when a mind has staked itself on separation and fear.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 27:13 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

A pledge given for a stranger is the mind binding itself to what it does not know and cannot trust, and every such bargain the ego makes is struck in the dark. The garment demanded is the covering torn away, the exposure that follows when a mind has staked itself on separation and fear.

What the mind ties itself to, it must answer for. Yet the demand is not punishment from outside. It is only the showing of a choice already made, and the same mind is free at any moment to stop pledging itself to fear and let love stand surety instead.

Garment: the covering the mind clings to, the defense stripped away once fear is seen for what it is. Stranger: the unknown other the ego binds itself to in mistrust, separation made into a contract. Strange woman: the alluring promise of the ego, an attachment that looks like gain and leaves the mind exposed.

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 27:13 today

  1. Go through the subscriptions, group chats and commitments on your phone tonight and find the one you said yes to without thinking. Cancel it or leave it, and feel how light that is.
  2. The next time someone asks you for something on the spot, say you will get back to them by tomorrow instead of answering immediately. A real yes can wait a day; only a pressured one cannot.
  3. When you catch yourself about to buy or sign something because of a deadline on the screen, close the tab and come back in the morning. If it only works under pressure, it was never a good deal.

What am I holding onto that I never actually chose?

The same truth in other traditions

Buddhism · Dhammapada

What you bind yourself to, you carry. Clinging is the rope, and the weight is only ever your own grip.

Tao Te Ching 44

The one who is content loses nothing. Chasing after what glitters, you end up paying with the peace you already had.

Stoicism · Seneca

We suffer most from the commitments we made to things we never examined. Look hard at what you are promising before you promise it.

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