surety

SU'RETY, noun Certainty; indubitableness. Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs-- Genesis 15:13. 1. Security; safety. Yet for the more surety they looked round about. 2. Foundation of stability; support. We our state Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds; On other surety none. 3. Evidence; ratification; confirmation. She call'd the saints to surety That she would never put it from her finger, Unless she gave it to yourself. 4. Security against loss or damage; security for payment. There remains unpaid A hundred thousand more, in surety of the which One part of Aquitain is bound to us. 5. In law, one that is bound with and for another; one who enters into a bond or recognizance to answer for another's appearance in court, or for his payment of a debt or for the performance of some act, and who, in case of the principal debtor's failure, is compellable to pay the debt or damages; a bondsman; a bail. He that is surety for a stranger, shall smart for it. Proverbs 11:15. Thy servant became surety for the lad to my father. Genesis 44:32. 6. In Scripture, Christ is called 'the surety of a better testament.' Hebrews 7:22. He undertook to make atonement for the sins of men, and thus prepare the way to deliver them from the punishment to which they had rendered themselves liable. 7. A hostage.