Proverbschapter 17
28 verses · Solomon and others · 10th to 5th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the LORD is the tester of hearts.
Introduction
Solomon and others, Wisdom and poetry, Proverbs Overview.
Solomon's collection continues here, and this chapter keeps close to home, to the family table, the court held at the city gate and the circle of friends. It was written for householders and for people drawn into lawsuits, where a gift slipped to a judge could decide a case. The sayings move between quarrels, bribes, fools and friendship with no heading to mark the turns. Listen for how often it measures a household by its peace, and for the pictures taken from the refiner's fire. It teaches how a small quarrel grows and how it can be stopped early.
Context
- Who
- Householders, litigants, and anyone tempted to buy a verdict
- What
- Sayings from Solomon's collection on quarrels, bribery, fools, friendship and the peace of a household.
- Where
- The towns of Israel, at the family table and at the court held in the city gate.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 931 BC; the book names him at Proverbs 10:1.
- Why
- To teach that the LORD tests the heart, that justice must not be bought, and that peace is worth more than a feast.
Historical context
"The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts." Refining was a known trade with a visible result. Silver was heated in a shallow bone-ash crucible with a blast of air until the lead and impurities were absorbed and driven off and the bright metal appeared. Everyone had seen the black scum lifted from the surface, which is what makes the comparison bite.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
"A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth" describes bribery from the briber's point of view, and the chapter refuses to pretend it does not work. The Law flatly forbade it, "a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise", precisely because at the gate court it worked so well.
"Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife." A house full of sacrifices means the meat of a fellowship offering being eaten by the family, a genuine celebration. The proverb says a crust in a calm house beats a feast in a hostile one.
"Children's children are the crown of old men" reflects a household of three or four generations living in one compound of rooms around a courtyard. Grandchildren were not visitors; they were the daily proof that the line would continue.
Significance
For hearers who had watched a rich neighbour walk out of the gate with a favourable ruling, "he that justifieth the wicked… even they both are abomination to the LORD" named the judge and the winner in one breath.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter also protects friendship: "a friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." In a society with no institutions to catch a falling family, that was not sentiment. It was the safety net.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No public reading in the synagogue is drawn from this chapter. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts was probed for this lane over Proverbs 16 to 31. It printed parashot total 0, haftarah uses total 0 and 0 chapters with a synagogue reading. It printed null for a festival reading of the book. The same probe printed 54 weekly portions and 6 festival readings in the table as a whole. The corpus ties no custom of the home or the synagogue to this chapter, so this part records the absence.
The chapter is met in the study of the Midrash and the Talmud instead. The corpus links it to twenty-two collections. The two it cites most often here are Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) and Bereshit Rabbah.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. Rashi reads the first two verses of the chapter as sayings about Israel. The dry morsel with quiet is God's own choice. In Rashi's words, "It would have been better for the Holy One, blessed be He, to destroy His Temple and His city" (Rashi on Proverbs 17:1:1). The reason he gives is that God "would enjoy tranquility from the sins of Israel". The wise servant of the second verse is given two readings. The first is Nebuchadnezzar, who took three steps in honour of God and came to rule over Israel. The second is a convert: "A righteous proselyte is better than a wicked person who was home born," which he ties to Ezekiel 47:23 (Rashi on Proverbs 17:2:1).
Repentance is the gift of the chapter in his reading. The precious stone of the eighth verse is a person who comes before God, "placates Him with words and returns to Him" (Rashi on Proverbs 17:8:1). The bribe from the bosom of the twenty-third verse is the same thing done in secret. "The Holy One, blessed be He, accepts words of humility and appeasement from the bosom of the wicked" (Rashi on Proverbs 17:23:1).
The rest are close readings of conduct. The man who covers a fault "does not remind him of his sin, and does not show him an angry face, he causes him to love him" (Rashi on Proverbs 17:9:1). Strife is a hole in the wall of a water canal, and "the hole becomes progressively wider; so does the quarrel constantly escalate" (Rashi on Proverbs 17:14:1). The joyful heart of the twenty-second verse is contentment: "When a person is satisfied with his lot, his countenance shines" (Rashi on Proverbs 17:22:1). At the tenth verse Rashi reads a word as a noun because its accent falls on the first letter, "unlike the rest of the Scriptures" (Rashi on Proverbs 17:10:1).
The corpus carries five further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They are cited by ref alone: Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 17:5:1, 17:20:1 and 17:21:1 and Metzudat David on Proverbs 17:13:1 and 17:15:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-three filed as Midrash and seven as Talmud, and the text of none, so each is cited here by its ref and never quoted or paraphrased. At verse 1 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 20:18, with Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 30:10:5. At verse 2 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 60:2 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 13:4. At verse 3 it holds Midrash Shmuel 4:1, with Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 41:1. At verse 4 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:4. At verse 5 it holds Berakhot 18a:6 and Eikhah Rabbah 1:20. At verse 6 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 37:2 and Bereshit Rabbah 63:2. At verse 8 it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Toldot 8:1, with Midrash Tanchuma, Toldot 8:1. At verse 9 it holds Tractate Kallah Rabbati 3:23. At verse 10 it holds Berakhot 7a:22, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 1:33. At verse 11 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 84:7 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:25. At verse 12 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 8, with Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Samuel HaKatan 1:4. At verse 13 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 38:3 and Ketubot 53a:12. At verse 14 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Kiddushin 1:35, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 1:4. At verse 15 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 65:6. At verse 16 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 7:7, with Ein Yaakov, Yoma 7:8. At verse 17 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:74, with Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:14. At verse 18 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 38:17:2. At verse 19 it holds Berakhot 18a:12 and Esther Rabbah 7:22. At verse 22 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:31, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Gittin 5:6. At verse 23 it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shoftim 7:1, with Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 8:1. At verse 25 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 40:3. At verse 26 it holds Avodah Zarah 4b:9. At verse 27 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 1:2:1. At verse 28 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 22:3. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and it is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Proverbs 17:1:1 to 17:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 17:5:1, 17:20:1 and 17:21:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Proverbs 17:13:1 and 17:15:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/proverbs/17.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Better a Dry Morsel With Quietness; Strife Is Water Let Loose
Proverbs 17:1-3
Better a dry morsel in quietness: The chapter opens with a better-than saying that weighs "a dry morsel in quietness" above "a house full of feasting with strife." A wise servant rules over a disgraceful son and shares his inheritance "as one of the brothers," overturning the ordinary order of birth.
A wise servant will rule over: The servant here was a slave, Albert Barnes explains, yet a slave could succeed to an inheritance, as in Genesis 15:2 and 2 Samuel 16:4. Wisdom lifts him over a disgraceful son. In this house wisdom outweighs birth.
the LORD is the tester of hearts: The crucible and the furnace separate pure silver and gold from their dross. Albert Barnes finds the discipline of the LORD more wonderful, freeing the good hidden like a grain of gold even in rough and common hearts. He compares Malachi 3:2.
Proverbs 17:4-5
A wicked man listens to evil lips: The wicked man who listens to evil lips and the liar who gives ear to a destructive tongue show the heart that owns them. Mocking the poor reaches past the poor man to insult "their Maker," and whoever gloats over another's calamity "will not go unpunished."
whoever gloats over calamity: Albert Barnes calls gloating over calamity a temper common in every age and the most hateful evil, one the Greeks named with a single word. Job disowns both sins of this verse in his vindication. To mock the poor insults their Maker.
Proverbs 17:6-9
Grandchildren are the crown of the aged: and the glory of a son is his father, an honour running down and up the generations. "Eloquent words are unfit for a fool," and lying lips are worse in a ruler, since rank raises the stakes of what a mouth says.
Eloquent words are unfit for a fool: Albert Barnes reads the verse as a call for harmony between character and speech in each case. Eloquent words sit badly on a fool, and lying lips sit worse on a ruler. Rank raises the cost of a lie.
A bribe is a charm to its giver: John Gill renders it a stone of grace. Adam Clarke thinks of a cut stone that flashes light whichever way it is turned. So the bribe seems to its giver to succeed wherever he turns.
Whoever conceals an offense promotes love: Albert Barnes warns against dwelling on a past offense with irritating repetition when it could be buried. He who brings it up alienates his chief friend, and the talebearer, Barnes adds, injures himself. Whoever conceals it promotes love.
Proverbs 17:10-13
A rebuke cuts into a man of discernment: A rebuke cuts deeper into a man of discernment than a hundred lashes into a fool. Meeting "a bear robbed of her cubs" is named safer than meeting a fool in his folly. Whoever returns evil for good is answered in kind, for evil "will never leave his house."
a cruel messenger will be sent against him: Albert Barnes takes the cruel messenger as the king's officer, and he notes that the Septuagint reads a pitiless angel sent by the Lord. Bede reads an unclean spirit sent against sinners, as against Egypt. An evil man seeks only rebellion.
a bear robbed of her cubs: Albert Barnes calls the brown bear of Syria the strongest picture of brute rage the Israelites knew, citing 2 Samuel 17:8. John Gill notes that a bear robbed of her cubs falls on the first man she meets. The fool in his folly is the worse meeting.
If anyone returns evil for good: The man who returns evil for good reverses the debt he owes to kindness. Evil then stays in his own house. The verse closes verses 10 to 13, each measuring what folly and rebellion bring back on a man.
Proverbs 17:13
“Whoso rewardeth evil for good,.... As the enemies of David and Christ rewarded them, Psa 35:12; this is base ingratitude, contrary to the law and light of nature; worse than beastly, is really devilish; evil shall not depart from his house; from him and his family; they shall be continually visited with one disease and calamity or another; so hateful and offensive is the sin of ingratitude to God, and therefore ought to be carefully avoided. This might be illustrated by the judgments of God on the nation of the Jews, for their ingratitude to Christ.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Proverbs 17:13
“Whoso rewardeth evil for good - Here is a most awful warning. As many persons are guilty of the sin of ingratitude, and of paying kindness with unkindness, and good with evil, it is no wonder we find so much wretchedness among men; for God’s word cannot fail; evil shall not depart from the houses and families of such persons.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 17:14-16
To start a quarrel is: "to release a flood," a small breach that widens past control, so the dispute is abandoned "before it breaks out." Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous are named together as detestable to the LORD, one offence in two directions.
A Friend Loveth at All Times; a Cheerful Heart Is Medicine
Albert Barnes notes that people need warning against an unjust acquittal as much as against an unjust condemnation. The word for acquitting is a courtroom term, to declare a man righteous. Both verdicts are detestable to the LORD.
Why should the fool have money: Albert Barnes renders the question as a price held in a fool's hand to buy wisdom when he has no heart for it. No money will supply the understanding heart. The fool holds the price and lacks the will.
Proverbs 17:17-19
A friend loves at all times: The verse sets "A friend loves at all times" beside "a brother is born for adversity." Striking hands in pledge for a neighbor marks "A man lacking judgment," the book's recurring caution against pledging what cannot be foreseen. Loving strife and building a high gate both invite destruction.
strikes hands in pledge: Striking hands, or shaking hands, sealed a contract in ancient times, Adam Clarke explains. The man lacking judgment seals a pledge to cover the debt of his neighbor. Clarke points back to the same caution in chapter 6.
he who builds his gate high: Adam Clarke explains that houses in parts of Palestine kept their doors low to stop raiders riding into the courts. A man who built a high gate from pride opened his house to destruction. Love of strife and love of display invite the same end.
Proverbs 17:20-23
The one with a perverse heart: A perverse heart finds no good and a deceitful tongue falls into trouble, the inward condition producing the outward ruin the chapter keeps returning to. "A joyful heart is good medicine," while "a broken spirit dries up the bones," a physical image for what the heart does to the body.
fathers a fool to his own grief: The father of a fool is named twice in one verse, once in grief and once with joy withheld. Verse 25 returns to the same grief and adds the mother. Verse 22 then shows what a broken spirit does to the bones.
Proverbs 17:21
“God is called "father" and God's love to humankind "mother," which was the cause of the divine incarnation and his suffering for our sake. Although God is our Father, he does not rejoice in an adopted son who is uneducated in divine wisdom and knowledge and who is committed to wickedness and evil. But a reasonable son gladdens his mother, that is, God's love toward humankind. It is she who presents us to God the Father as undernourished children, longing for solid spiritual food.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Exposition on Proverbs, Fragment 17:21patristic
A joyful heart is good medicine: Clarke notes that the Chaldee and Syriac read body in place of medicine, a word that pairs with the bones of the second line. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown favor the same reading and picture a broken spirit drying the bones like marrow drained. A joyful heart does the body good.
takes a covert bribe: A wicked man takes the covert bribe from the fold of a garment, Barnes notes, a sign of how quietly it passed to the judge. John Gill calls both giver and taker wicked. Justice is subverted, as verse 15 warned.
Proverbs 17:24-26
Wisdom is the focus of the discerning: , while "the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth," a contrast of attention. To punish the innocent or to flog a noble is named "surely not good," an injustice the chapter states without any qualifying clause.
bitterness to her who bore him: John Gill calls the bitterness of the mother worse than the pains she bore at his birth. The verse repeats the grief of the father in verse 21 and adds her who bore him. Jarchi read the father as God, Gill reports.
to punish the innocent: John Gill ties the verse to verse 15 and calls the punishment of the righteous detestable to the Lord. Adam Clarke reads the flogged noble as a ruler struck down under a pretense of justice. Bede reads it of Christ, who willed to be struck.
Proverbs 17:27-28
A man of knowledge restrains his words: s," and "a man of understanding maintains a calm spirit." Even a fool who keeps silent "is considered wise." Holding his tongue earns him a name for discernment he has not earned, and so appearance and substance can be mistaken for each other.
Proverbs 17:27
“They said of Agatho that for three years he kept a stone in his mouth in order to teach himself silence.”
Desert Fathers · written before 500 · The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monkspatristic
Even a fool is considered wise: Gregory the Dialogist compares the silent fool to a house with the door shut, where no one knows who waits inside. Adam Clarke calls the fool wise in that one particular, knowing to hold his tongue. Silence hides folly until his works reveal it.
Proverbs 17:28
“Even a fool - He is counted wise as to that particular. He may know that he cannot speak well, and he has sense enough to keep from speaking. He is, as to that particular, a wise fool. A man may be golden-mouthed and silver-tongued in eloquence; but to know when and where to speak and to be silent, is better than diamonds. But who that thinks he can speak well can refrain from speaking? His tongue has no rest.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job 11.35; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.