“Struck hands in pledge”
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger, (Proverbs 6:1 BSB)
What it sounds like today
Just shaking hands to agree with someone.
The cultural key
Modern readers see a handshake and think of a warm agreement. In this context the clasped hands are a legal act with serious teeth. To 'strike hands in pledge' was to make yourself surety, a guarantor who personally covers another's debt if he cannot pay. By that gesture you bound your own goods, and potentially your freedom, to a stranger's loan. That is why the father sounds an alarm: if you have done this, 'you have fallen into your neighbor's hands,' and he urges the son to go, humble himself, and get released from the obligation without delay, 'like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter.' Proverbs returns to the warning repeatedly, 'one who strikes hands in pledge and puts up security for his neighbor' is courting ruin (Proverbs 17:18; 22:26). The handshake is not sentiment but a contract that can cost you everything.
Recovered meaning
'Struck hands in pledge' is the binding gesture of becoming surety for another's debt, staking your own property on a stranger's loan. Proverbs treats it as a dangerous trap to escape quickly, not a friendly handshake.