Proverbs 18:17
The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.
BSB
ASV
He that pleadeth his cause first seemeth just; But his neighbor cometh and searcheth him out.
KJV
He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him.
A protest against another fault in judging. Haste is hardly less evil than corruption. “Audi alteram partern “should be the rule of every judge. His neighbor - The other party to the suit “searcheth,” i. e., scrutinizes and detects him.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk5
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Proverbs 18:13He who answers a matter before he hears it—this is folly and disgrace to him.
leads to
“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”
then you must inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. And if it is established with certainty that this abomination has been committed among you,
It is a trap for a man to dedicate something rashly, only later to reconsider his vows.
I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.
“If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if I have found favor in his sight, and the matter seems proper to the king, and I am pleasing in his sight, may an order…
