Proverbs 20:16

“Take his garment--implies severe exaction, justified by the surety's rashness. a strange woman--by some readings "strangers," but the former here, and in Pro 27:13, is allowable, and strengthens the sense. The debauchee is less reliable than the merely careless.”

“The warning against suretiship and lust are here repeated and combined (compare Proverbs 27:13). The judge tells the creditor to seize the goods of the surety who has been weak enough to pledge himself for those who are alien to him, instead of those of the actual debtor. The reading of the the King James Version recalls in the second clause the history of Tamar Genesis 38:17-18. The Hebrew text, however, gives “strangers” in the masculine plural, and is probably right, the feminine being the reading of the margin, probably adopted from Proverbs 27:13. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Take - As a pledge, without which he ought not to be trusted. Of him - That is surety. Proverbs 20:18”

“20:16 // 27:13 A wise lender gets security or a deposit on a loan. A stranger was an Israelite unknown to a lender, who required security. Proverbs warns the wise to avoid borrowing altogether (see 6:1-2). • The message of this proverb is repeated in 6:1-5; 11:15; 17:18; 22:26.”

“Take his: Pro 11:15, Pro 22:26, Pro 22:27, Pro 27:13; Exo 22:26, Exo 22:27 a strange: Pro 2:16, Pro 5:3, Pro 7:5, Pro 7:10, Pro 23:27 Proverbs 20:17”

“16 Take from him the garment, for he hath become surety for another; And for strangers take him as a pledge. The same proverb Pro 27:13, where קח, with the usual aphaeresis, here interchanges with it the fuller form לקח, which is also found at Eze 37:16. To this imperative חבלהוּ is parallel: take him as a pledge (Theodotion, Jerome, the Venet. and Luther); it is not a substantive: his pledge (Targ.), which would require the word חבלתו (חבלו); nor is it to be read with the Syr. חבלהוּ, one pledges him; but it is imperative, not however of the Piel, which would be חבלהוּ, and would mean "destroy him;" but, as Aben Ezra rightly, the imperative of Kal of חבל, to take as a pledge, Exo 22:25, for…”