Proverbs 27:3-23

3 A stone is heavy and the sand weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both.

4 Wrath is cruel and anger is outraging, but who is able to stand before envy?

5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.

6 Faithful are the wounds from a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

7 The full soul loathes a honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

8 As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man who wandereth from his place.

9 Ointment and perfume make the heart rejoice; so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by counsel from the heart.

10 Thine own friend and thy father's friend, forsake not; neither go to thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity; for better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off.

11 My son, be wise and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me.

12 A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.

13 Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, but take a pledge from him for a strange woman.

14 He that, rising early in the morning, blesseth his friend with a loud voice: it shall be counted as a curse to him.

15 A continual dripping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.

16 Whosoever would hide her would hide the wind, and the ointment of his right hand which betrayeth itself.

17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

18 Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof; so he that waiteth on his master shall be honored.

19 As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.

20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

21 As the refining pot for silver and the furnace for gold, so is a man tried by praise.

22 Though thou shouldest grind a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

23 Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds,

Proverbs 27:3-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 14

This chapter relates the sickness of Jeroboam's son, the application of his wife, at his instance, to the prophet Ahijah, in the child's favour, 1Ki 14:1-6, the prophecy of the prophet concerning the ruin of Jeroboam's house, and the death of the child, which came to pass, 1Ki 14:7-18, an account of the years of Jeroboam's reign, and also of Rehoboam's, 1Ki 14:19-21, and of the evil things done and suffered by the latter in his kingdom, and the calamities that came upon him for it, 1Ki 14:22-28 and the conclusion of his reign, 1Ki 14:29-31.