Proverbs 27:13-23

13 Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger; hold it in pledge if it is done for an outsider.

14 If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.

15 A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm;

16 restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.

17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

18 The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever protects their master will be honored.

19 As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.^[a]

20 Death and Destruction^[b] are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes.

21 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise.

22 Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding them like grain with a pestle, you will not remove their folly from them.

23 Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;

Proverbs 27:13-23 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.

Cross References

• 1. Proverbs 20:16
• 2. S Esther 1:18; Proverbs 19:13
• 3. 1 Corinthians 9:7
• 4. Luke 19:12-27
• 5. Proverbs 30:15-16; Habakkuk 2:5
• 6. Ecclesiastes 1:8; Ecclesiastes 6:7
• 7. S Proverbs 17:3
• 8. Proverbs 12:10

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "so others reflect your heart back to you"
• [b]. Hebrew "Abaddon"