Proverbs 17:8-18

8 Some people think a bribe works like magic; they believe it can do anything.

9 If you want people to like you, forgive them when they wrong you. Remembering wrongs can break up a friendship.

10 An intelligent person learns more from one rebuke than a fool learns from being beaten a hundred times.

11 Death will come like a cruel messenger to wicked people who are always stirring up trouble.

12 It is better to meet a mother bear robbed of her cubs than to meet some fool busy with a stupid project.

13 If you repay good with evil, you will never get evil out of your house.

14 The start of an argument is like the first break in a dam; stop it before it goes any further.

15 Condemning the innocent or letting the wicked go - both are hateful to the Lord.

16 It does a fool no good to spend money on an education, because he has no common sense.

17 Friends always show their love. What are relatives for if not to share trouble? ¹

18 Only someone with no sense would promise to be responsible for someone else's debts.

Proverbs 17:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 7

This chapter gives an account of some buildings of Solomon for himself, 1Ki 7:1-12; and of other things for the use of the temple; of two pillars of brass, 1Ki 7:13-22; of the molten sea, 1Ki 7:23-26; and of ten bases, and ten layers on them, 1Ki 7:27-39; with other utensils and ornaments, 1Ki 7:40-51.

Cross References

• 1. +217.17Ben Sira 6.7-10.