Proverbschapter 27
27 verses · Solomon and others · 10th to 5th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
The wounds of a friend are faithful, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Introduction
Solomon and others, Wisdom and poetry, Proverbs Overview.
This chapter comes from the Hezekiah collection of Solomon's sayings, and it was heard by herdsmen and landholders whose wealth grazed in the open country. Most of it concerns friends and neighbours, the loyal and the flattering, the near and the far. Its sayings lean on pictures from the household, the forge and the water basin. Listen for the difference between a friend's honesty and an enemy's flattery, and for the closing lines, which turn to the care of a flock. The chapter asks what lasts and who can be trusted.
Context
- Who
- Herdsmen and landholders whose wealth walked around on four legs
- What
- Sayings from the Hezekiah collection on friendship, praise, neighbours, and the care of flocks and herds.
- Where
- The pastures and sheepfolds of Judah, and the households that lived from them.
- When
- Sayings of Solomon from about 970 to 931 BC, copied out under Hezekiah, about 715 to 686 BC.
- Why
- To teach humility about tomorrow, trust in honest friends and faithful care for what one has been given.
Historical context
The chapter ends with the clearest management lesson in the Bible: "be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds: for riches are not for ever." Flocks had to be counted, inspected for injury and disease, moved between pasture and water, folded at night against wolves and thieves, and shorn in season. Nobody could do that from a distance.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The economics are then spelled out: "the lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field, and thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food." Sheep gave wool for the household's cloth, goats gave milk, cheese, and hair for tents, and surplus animals bought land. A flock was a bank account, a wardrobe, and a dairy at once, and unlike a crown, it renewed itself.
"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Blades were kept keen by drawing them against another piece of iron, with sparks and noise. The friendship in view is abrasive on purpose.
"As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." There were no mirrors in an ordinary house beyond a polished bronze disc; most people saw themselves in a still bowl or cistern. The comparison assumes you have leaned over water to look at yourself.
Significance
"Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth" was addressed to people whose whole year hung on rain that might not come.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And "faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful" gave first hearers a way to tell the difference between the neighbour who tells them the truth and the one who flatters them at the gate.
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-three collections. The two it cites most often here are Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) and Ein Yaakov.
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 friend of the chapter three ways. The friend who sharpens his friend is the scholar: "Torah scholars sharpen each other in halachah" (Rashi on Proverbs 27:17:1). The friend and the father's friend of the tenth verse is God, "Who is called a friend to Israel" (Rashi on Proverbs 27:10:1). The friend blessed with a loud voice in the morning carries two readings, and Rashi names the sources of both. They are tractate Arachin 16a and the Midrash of Rabbi Tanhuma on Balak 15, where the one who blessed aloud is Balaam (Rashi on Proverbs 27:14:1).
The face in water of the nineteenth verse is given in seven words: "the face that you show it, it shows you" (Rashi on Proverbs 27:19:1). The refining pot of the twenty-first verse is praise: "A man is refined and considered according to his praise" (Rashi on Proverbs 27:21:1). The bird that wanders from its nest is "a Torah scholar who wanders away from his studies, from reviewing what he learned" (Rashi on Proverbs 27:8:1).
The last verses on the flocks are read as plain household counsel. Pay attention to the flocks "to determine what they require" (Rashi on Proverbs 27:23:1), because riches may not last, "Therefore, do not despise your small things" (Rashi on Proverbs 27:24:1).
The corpus carries two 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 27:2:1 and 27:5:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, twenty-eight filed as Midrash and twelve 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 Bereshit Rabbah 73:9 and Bereshit Rabbah 80:4. At verse 2 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 11:2, with Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 22:1. At verse 3 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 18:18:6, with Shemot Rabbah 13:1. At verse 5 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:1:1, with Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 50:20:1. At verse 6 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:97, with Ein Yaakov, Taanit 3:5. At verse 7 it holds Bava Kamma 92b:11, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Kama 8:10. At verse 8 it holds Berakhot 56b:9 and Chagigah 9b:16. At verse 9 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Tetzaveh 15:1. At verse 10 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 26:1 and Bava Metzia 108b:9. At verse 11 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 18:9, with Berakhot 4a:13. At verse 13 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Metzia 9:6, with Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 10:5. At verse 14 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 70:3 and Arakhin 16a:2. At verse 15 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yevamot 6:12, with Ein Yaakov, Yevamot 6:14. At verse 17 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 69:2, with Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 57. At verse 18 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 18:2, with Bamidbar Rabbah 12:9. At verse 19 it holds Midrash Mishlei 27:4, with Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Missing and Extra Letters 1:27. At verse 20 it holds Ein Yaakov, Tamid 4:2, with Kohelet Rabbah 1:7:7. At verse 21 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 64. At verse 22 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:2. At verse 23 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 12:21:1. At verse 24 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 1:11. At verse 25 it holds Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II 6:20. At verse 26 it holds Chagigah 13a:9. At verse 27 it holds Bekhorot 6b:15. 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 27:1:1 to 27:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 27:2:1 and 27:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/proverbs/27.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.
Boast Not of Tomorrow; Faithful Are the Wounds of a Friend
Proverbs 27:1-2
Do not boast about tomorrow: w" sits beside "Let another praise you" as two forms of one restraint. Neither the future nor his own worth belongs to the speaker to claim. Verse 2 turns humility toward praise, since worth is proved by another's mouth and self-praise shows the pride it denies.
Proverbs 27:1
“He that says, "When I am dying I will be baptized, lest I should sin and defile my baptism," is ignorant of God and forgetful of his own nature. For "do not delay to turn to the Lord, for you do not know what the next day will bring forth." Baptize also your infants, and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of God. For he says, "Suffer the little children to come to me, and forbid them not." .”
Apostolic Constitutions · written before 380 · Constitutions of the Holy Apostlespatristic
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Proverbs 27:1
“Boast not thyself of to-morrow - See note on Jas 4:13, etc. Do not depend on any future moment for spiritual good which at present thou needest, and God is willing to give, and without which, should death surprise thee, thou must be eternally lost; such as repentance, faith in Christ, the pardon of sin, the witness of the Holy Spirit, and complete renovation of soul. Be incessant in thy application to God for these blessings. My old MS. Bible translates thus: Ne glorie thou into the morewenning.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Let another praise you: Verse 1 forbids boasting about tomorrow; verse 2 forbids boasting about oneself. Cyril of Alexandria says no one crowns himself, and the man who composes his own praises is rightly mocked. John Gill adds that a man should do what is worth praising and leave the praise to other lips.
Proverbs 27:2
“No one crowns himself, and that person is justly ridiculed who devises praises for himself, for it is written, "Let your neighbor praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips." Though hypocrites may be able possibly to remain undetected and thus to seize the honors that people bestow, yet God knows your hearts. The judge cannot be deceived.… He knows who steals by fraud the honor which another truly deserves.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on Luke, Homily 110patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 27:2
“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth,.... Men should do those things which are praiseworthy; and should do them openly, that they may be seen and praised for them: for it is honourable to have such a character as Demetrius had, who had a good report of all men; and as the brother had, whose praise in the Gospel was in all the churches.”
Proverbs 27:3-6
A stone is heavy: Verse 3 sets "aggravation from a fool" beside stone and sand and finds it heavier than both. Wrath and anger are named, but jealousy is left unanswered: "who can withstand jealousy?" Verses 5 and 6 turn to speech, since "Better an open rebuke than love that is concealed."
but who can withstand jealousy?: Wrath and anger are pictured as cruelty and a flood, yet jealousy is set above both as harder to withstand. Bede applies the verse to a fool's anger. He points to Moses, who left Pharaoh in great anger, as anger of another kind.
Better an open rebuke: Albert Barnes reads concealed love as love that never shows itself by rebuking a fault. Any rebuke, he says, serves better than that. Basil of Caesarea applies the verse to sin kept hidden for another's sake, which he likens to letting a sick man die.
Proverbs 27:5
“It is surely clear that concealing sin contributes to the death of the sick person, "for the sting of death is sin," says the Scripture, and also, "Open rebukes are better than hidden love." Let no one, therefore, conceal a sin in behalf of another, lest fratricide take the place of fraternal charity.”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · The Long Rules 46patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 27:5
“Secret love - Better, love that is hidden; i. e., love which never shows itself in this one way of rebuking faults. Rebuke, whether from friend or foe, is better than such love.”
The wounds of a friend are faithful: The wound is the open rebuke of verse 5. John Gill reads the wounds as friendly reproofs, painful and given in love, and sets the kisses of Joab and Judas against them. Albert Barnes renders deceitful as abundant, the enemy lavish with kisses that cover betrayal.
Proverbs 27:6
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend,.... That is, friendly reproofs; which, though they may be severe, at least thought so, and may grieve and wound, and cause pain and uneasiness for the present, yet, proceeding from a spirit of love, faithfulness, and integrity, and designed for the good of the person reproved, ought to be kindly received; see Psa 141:5; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful; flow from a deceitful heart, and not to be confided in, as the kisses of Joab and Judas.”
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 27:6
“Rebukes are good, and often better than a silent friendship. Even if a friend thinks himself hurt, still rebuke him; and if the bitterness of the correction wounds his mind, still rebuke him and fear not. "The wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of flatterers." Rebuke, then, your erring friend; forsake not an innocent one. For friendship ought to be steadfast and to rest firm in true affection.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Duties of the Clergy 3.22.127patristic
Proverbs 27:6
“Deceitful - Better, abundant. Very lavish is the enemy of the kisses that cover perfidy, but lavish of them only. His courtesy goes no deeper.”
Proverbs 27:7-10
The soul that is full loathes honey: Verse 7 observes appetite: "The soul that is full loathes honey, but to a hungry soul, any bitter thing is sweet." Verse 10 gives the practical edge: "Do not forsake your friend or your father’s friend," and "better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away."
Proverbs 27:7
“The full soul loatheth an honeycomb,.... Or "tramples upon" it (a), as the word signifies, and most versions render it, expressive of contempt and abhorrence; and suits will the situation of the honeycomb, which was usually in trees and rocks in Palestine: and so might drop from thence, and be trampled upon by passengers; and especially such as are here described, whose appetites have been sated with dainties, and their stomachs heave at the most delicious food.”
Like a bird that strays from its nest: Adam Clarke pictures the bird leaving its brood and feeding ground for strange country, where every danger meets it. The man who wanders from home runs the same risks. Clarke says he saw many such wanderers come to misery.
Proverbs 27:8
Is a bird that wandereth from her nest - Leaving her own brood, places of retreat, and feeding-ground behind, and going into strange countries, where she is exposed to every kind of danger. So is the man who leaves his family connections and country, and goes into strange parts to find employment, better his circumstances, make a fortune, etc. I have seen multitudes of such wanderers from their place come to great misery and wretchedness. God’s general advice is, “Do good, and dwell in the land; and verily thou shalt be fed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Oil and incense bring joy to the heart: Clarke describes the Eastern custom of anointing guests with oil and perfume at the close of a meal. A friend's counsel brings the soul the same joy.
Proverbs 27:9
“Ointment and perfume - Anointing the head and various parts of the body with aromatic oil is frequent in the East, and fumigating the beards of the guests at the conclusion of an entertainment is almost universal; as is also sprinkling rose-water, and water highly ordoriferous. Two of the curious vessels which are used for this purpose are now before me; they hold some quarts each, and are beautifully inlaid with silver in the form of sprigs, leaves, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Do not forsake your friend: Gill reads your friend and your father's friend as those long tried and found faithful. Rehoboam left his father's friends for new ones and lost ten tribes. Ambrose finds a neighbor's goodwill often stronger than a brother's tie.
Proverbs 27:10
“Solomon says, "Better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off." For this reason a person generally trusts himself to the good will of a friend rather than to the ties of relationship to his brother. So far does good will prevail that it often goes beyond the pledges given by nature.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Duties of the Clergy 1.34.174patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 27:10
“Thine own friend, and thy father's friend forsake not,.... Who have been long tried and proved, and found faithful; these should be kept to and valued, and not new ones sought; which to do is oftentimes of bad consequence. Solomon valued his father's friend Hiram, and kept up friendship with him; but Rehoboam his son forsook the counsel of the old men his father's friends and counsellors, and followed the young mien his new friends, and thereby lost ten tribes at once.”
Proverbs 27:11-14
Be wise, my son: n, and bring joy to my heart" opens a short group of household counsel. The prudent see danger and take cover while the simple pay the penalty. Verse 14 closes the group, for a neighbor blessed "with a loud voice early in the morning" hears a curse.
Proverbs 27:11
“The voice of the teacher to his true disciple. He pleads with him that the uprightness of the scholar will be the truest answer to all attacks on the character or teaching of the master.”
The prudent see danger and take cover: The prudent see trouble coming and hide from it, while the simple walk straight on into it. The verse sits in a cluster of household counsel that opens with a father's plea in verse 11. Foresight is the wisdom that plea asks for.
Proverbs 27:12
“A prudent man foreseeth the evil - The very same as Pro 22:3.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Take the garment of him who posts security: Gill notes that this proverb stands at 20:16 in the same words. It warns the lender to take collateral from a man who posts security for a stranger. Take his garment, and the risk falls on him.
Proverbs 27:13
“Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. See Gill on Pro 20:16, where the same proverb is, and is expressed in the same words as here.”
blesses his neighbor with a loud voice: Clarke reads the loud blessing as praise of a neighbor so extravagant that it is counted suspect. An Italian proverb he cites says one who praises you more than usual has deceived you or means to. Loud praise early in the morning becomes a curse.
Proverbs 27:14
“He that blesseth his friend - He who makes loud and public protestations of acknowledgments to his friend for favors received, subjects his sincerity to suspicion; and remember the Italian proverb elsewhere quoted: - “He who praises you more than he was wont to do, has either deceived you, or is about to do it.” Extravagant public professions are little to be regarded.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Iron Sharpeneth Iron; Know Well the State of Thy Flocks
Proverbs 27:15-16
A constant dripping on a rainy day: y and a contentious woman are alike" repeats a comparison, the quarrelsome wife beside weather no roof keeps out. Verse 16 presses the figure further, since "restraining her is like holding back the wind or grasping oil with one’s right hand."
Proverbs 27:15
Just as no house ever falls to the ground by a sudden collapse, but only when there is some flaw of long standing in the foundation, or when by long continued neglect of its inmates, what was at first only a little drip finds its way through, and so the protecting walls are by degrees ruined, and in consequence of long standing neglect the gap becomes larger, and breaks away, and in time the drenching storm and rain pours in like a river: for "by slothfulness a building is cast down, and through the weakness of hands the house shall…
John Cassian · written before 435 · CONFERENCE 6:17patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 27:15
“Continual dropping - Here, as in the marginal reference, the flat, earthen roof of Eastern houses, always liable to cracks and leakage, supplies the groundwork of the similitude.”
restraining her is like holding back the wind: Verse 15 began the comparison with a dripping roof. Clarke reads the two images as one point: restraining such a woman is like stopping the wind, and hiding her conduct like hiding scented oil. He adds that the Hebrew is obscure and variously translated.
Proverbs 27:16
“Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind - You may as well attempt to repress the blowing of the wind, as the tongue of a scold; and to conceal this unfortunate propensity of a wife is as impossible as to hush the storm, and prevent its sound from being heard. The ointment of his right hand - You can no more conceal such a woman’s conduct, than you can the smell of the aromatic oil with which your hand has been anointed. The Hebrew is very obscure, and is variously translated.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 27:17-19
As iron sharpens iron: n, so one man sharpens another" states the use of friendship. "Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit" carries the same principle into labor. Verse 19 closes the three: "As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the true man."
Proverbs 27:17
“The proverb expresses the gain of mutual counsel as found in clear, well-defined thoughts. Two minds, thus acting on each other, become more acute. This is better than to see in “sharpening” the idea of provoking, and the point of the maxim in the fact that the quarrels of those who have been friends are bitter in proportion to their previous intimacy.”
Whoever tends a fig tree: Albert Barnes notes that the fig tree needs constant care and yields abundant crops. A faithful servant's care for his master brings a like reward. Charles Spurgeon pictures the days of Solomon, when each man tended his own fig tree and in time ate its fruit.
Proverbs 27:18
“IN Solomon's day, every man sat under his own vine and fig tree and there was peace throughout the whole country. Then, God's Law about dividing out the land among the people, so that every man had his own plot, was rightly observed and each one had a fig tree of his own, to which he gave his personal attention. And, in due time, having waited upon the fig tree and kept it, he ate the fruit thereof.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2643: “The Honored Servant” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 27:18
“Waiteth - literally, “keepeth,” “observeth.” As the fig tree requires constant care but yields abundant crops, so the ministrations of a faithful servant will not be without their due reward. Compare 2Ti 2:6.”
As water reflects the face: Albert Barnes gives two readings. In one, a man looks into another heart and finds his own likeness, the common nature all share. Others take it to mean that people judge others by themselves and find them faithful or false as they are themselves.
Proverbs 27:19
“As we see our own face when we look on the mirror-like surface of the water, so in every heart of man we may see our own likeness. In spite of all diversities we come upon the common human nature in which we all alike share. Others see in the reference to the reflection in the water the thought that we judge of others by ourselves, find them faithful or the reverse, as we ourselves are.”
Proverbs 27:20-22
Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied: d; so the eyes of man are never satisfied" names the grave's appetite and human appetite in one figure. Verse 21 repeats the refining figure of 17:3, since "a man is tested by the praise accorded him." Verse 22 ends on folly's stubbornness.
Proverbs 27:20
“Hell and destruction are never full - How hideous must the soul of a covetous man be, when God compares it to hell and perdition! The eyes of man are never satisfied - As the grave can never be filled up with bodies, nor perdition with souls; so the restless desire, the lust of power, riches, and splendor, is never satisfied. Out of this ever unsatisfied desire spring all the changing fashions, the varied amusements, and the endless modes of getting money, prevalent in every age, and in every country.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 27:20
“Hell and destruction are never full,.... The grave, as the word used often signifies; and which may be called "destruction", because bodies laid in it are soon corrupted and destroyed; and though bodies are cast into it and devoured by it, it is ready for more; it is one of the four things which never have enough.”
A crucible for silver: Praise is the fire here. The crucible and furnace show what metal is made of, and praise shows what a man is. Albert Barnes reads the line as a charge, that a man should purify his praise of the flattery mixed into it.
Though you grind a fool like grain: Clarke sees ore pounded in a mortar so that fire can separate the metal. Grind a fool like grain, and his folly still clings to him. Precept and example alike fail with him, Clarke says.
Proverbs 27:22
“Though thou shouldest bray a fool - Leaving all other conjectures, of which commentators are full, I would propose, that this is a metaphor taken from pounding metallic ores in very large mortars, such as are still common in the East, in order that, when subjected to the action of the fire, the metal may be the more easily separated from the ore. However you may try, by precept or example, or both, to instruct a stupid man, your labor is lost; his foolishness cannot be separated from him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 27:23-27
Be sure to know the state of your flocks: s" opens the chapter's close in the plain economics of a shepherd's life. The lambs clothe the household, and the goats bring "the price of a field." Goats' milk feeds the household and the maidservants, wisdom proved in ordinary provision.
Proverbs 27:23
“The verses sing the praises of the earlier patriarchal life, with its flocks and herds, and tillage of the ground, as compared with the commerce of a later time, with money as its chief or only wealth. Pro 27:23 The state - literally, face. The verse is an illustration of Joh 10:3, Joh 10:14. Pro 27:24 Riches - The money which men may steal, or waste, is contrasted with the land of which the owner is not so easily deprived.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 27:23
“It is not fitting to address simply to all who have believed in Christ instruction upon all points, for it is written, "With knowledge learn the souls of your flock." For the way is very different by which we establish in the paths of truth one who has but just now become a disciple, from one more confirmed in mind and able to understand what is the height and depth, and what the length and breadth. In the former, use simple teaching, in which there is nothing profound or difficult to understand.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on Luke, Homily 93patristic
for riches are not forever: Clarke sets money and a crown, which last a short season, against flocks and herds. Well tended, flocks and herds can multiply from generation to generation. Riches in coin pass; a flock endures.
Proverbs 27:24
“For riches are not for ever - All other kinds of property are very transitory. Money and the highest civil honors are but for a short season. Flocks and herds, properly attended to, may be multiplied and continued from generation to generation. The crown itself is not naturally so permanent.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
When hay is removed and new growth appears: Adam Clarke reads a farm calendar here: the hay mown and stored, then the lambs sent to the spring grass on the hills. The sale of lambs and goats pays what the landlord asks for the field. Verse 26 names that return.
Proverbs 27:25
“The hay appeareth - Take care that this be timeously mown, carefully dried and safely ricked or housed. And when the tender grass and the proper herbs appear in the mountains in the spring, then send forth the lambs, the young of the flock, that they may get suitable pasturage, without too much impoverishing the home fields; for by the sale of the lambs and goats, the price of the field is paid - all the landlord’s demands are discharged.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the lambs will provide you with clothing: Gill reads the lambs and goats as a reason for diligence with the flocks. The lambs provide wool for clothing. The goats, raised and sold, provide the price of a field for more pasture.
Proverbs 27:26
“The lambs are for thy clothing,.... This is another argument, exciting to diligence in the pastoral calling, taken from the profit arising from it: the wool of the lambs, or rather "sheep", as many versions render it; of it cloth is made, and of that garments to be worn, to keep decent, warm, and comfortable; see Job 31:20; and the goats are the price of thy field: these, being brought up and sold, furnish the husbandman with money to purchase more fields to feed his cattle on.”
You will have plenty of goats’ milk: Adam Clarke explains that the household ate bread and drank goats' milk with it, the common food of master and family. The maidservants who worked the dairy shared it. The flock of verse 23 feeds the whole house.
Proverbs 27:27
“Goats’ milk enough for thy food - ללחמך lelachmecha, “to thy bread;” for they ate the bread and supped the milk to assist mastication, and help deglutition. And it seems that bread, with goats’ milk, was the general article of food for the master and his family; and for the servant maids who assisted in the household work, and performed the operations required in the dairy. The reader who wishes to see these maxims detailed and illustrated at large, may consult the writers De Re Rustica, where he will find much curious information.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
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); Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 1.34.174; Basil of Caesarea, THE LONG RULES 46; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2643: “The Honored Servant” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 110; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; John Gill and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.