Proverbschapter 17
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Speaks with:Proverbs 10×7Proverbs 18×5Proverbs 15×3Proverbs 16×3Proverbs 19×3Exodus 23×3
Summary
Chapter summary
'Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than a house full of feasting with strife.' The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, 'but Jehovah trieth the hearts.' He that mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker. 'A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.' The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water, leave off contention before there is quarrelling. 'A cheerful heart is a good medicine; but a broken spirit drieth up the bones.'
Context
Poetry · Solomon, Agur, Lemuel — Proverbs overview
- A. 1–14 Better a Dry Morsel With Quietness; Strife Is Water Let Loose
- B. 15–28 A Friend Loveth at All Times; a Cheerful Heart Is Medicine
The outline
A.Better a Dry Morsel With Quietness; Strife Is Water Let Loosevv. 1 to 14
Read vv. 1 to 14 →B.A Friend Loveth at All Times; a Cheerful Heart Is Medicinevv. 15 to 28
Read vv. 15 to 28 →
The world behind this chapter
Proverbs 17The history
"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.
"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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Proverbs 17. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.