Proverbs27chapter 27

Proverbs 27:1-2

Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth sits beside let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth as two forms of the same restraint: neither the future nor one's own worth belongs to the speaker to claim. The bench reads verse 1 alongside James 4:13-14, ye know not what shall be on the morrow, the New Testament's own comment on presuming upon time not given. Verse 2 turns the same humility toward praise, since a man's worth is proved by another's mouth and self-praise convicts itself of the pride it denies.

Proverbs 27:3-6

A stone is heavy: A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both, sets anger beside the heaviest common loads and finds it worse to carry, since a stone can be set down and a fool's fury cannot be reasoned with. Wrath is cruel and anger outrageous, but envy the text leaves unanswered, who is able to stand before it. Open rebuke is better than secret love turns the comparison toward speech, since a friend who corrects plainly serves better than one whose affection stays hidden and does nothing. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful, closes the cluster on the same point, that a wound meant for good outranks a kiss meant to flatter.

Proverbs 27:7-10

The full soul loatheth an honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet, states an observation about appetite that the following verses turn toward relationships: a man away from his place is as lost as a bird away from her nest, and the sweetness of hearty counsel from a friend is as welcome as ointment and perfume to a weary man. Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not gives the counsel its practical edge, since a neighbour near at hand serves better in calamity than a brother far off.

Proverbs 27:11-14

My son, be wise, and make my heart glad opens a short cluster of household counsel: the prudent man foresees evil and hides himself while the simple walk on and are punished, and taking a pledge from one who is surety for a stranger repeats the warning of 20:16 nearly word for word, the collection allowing the doubling. He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him closes the group with the point that even a good word can be ruined by excess and bad timing.

Proverbs 27:15-16

A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike repeats a comparison the book makes elsewhere between the quarrelsome wife and weather no roof can keep out. Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself, presses the figure further, since containing her is as impossible as holding wind in the hand or hiding a scent that gives itself away.

Proverbs 27:17-19

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend states friendship's use plainly, that one mind set against another produces an edge neither achieves alone. Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof carries the same principle into labor, diligent care returning its own reward, and applies it to the servant who waits on his master. As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man, closes the triad: people reflect one another, and what a man sees in another's heart is commonly his own looking back.

Proverbs 27:20-22

Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied, names the grave's appetite and human appetite in the same breath, one figure for both. As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise, repeats the refining figure of 17:3 in a new application, that praise tests a man the way fire tests metal and shows what he is made of. Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him, ends the cluster on folly's stubbornness, a condition no force from outside can beat out of a man.

Proverbs 27:23-27

Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds opens the chapter's close in the plain economics of a shepherd's life, since riches are not for ever and a crown does not endure to every generation, wealth in flocks and fields outlasting wealth kept as treasure. The hay appears and the tender grass shows itself, gathered in its season, and the lambs clothe the household while the goats are sold for the price of the field, the text describing a working farm without embarrassment. Goats' milk enough for food, for the household, and for the maintenance of the maidens closes the book's first block of sentence literature on ordinary provision, wisdom proved in daily diligence rather than in grand pronouncement.