Proverbs 27:9-19

9 Perfume and incense will gladden a heart, and the pleasantness of one's friend [is] {personal advice}.

10 As for your friend and a friend of your father, do not forsake [them], and the house of your brother, do not enter on the day of your calamity. Better is a close neighbor than a distant brother.

11 Be wise, my child, and make my heart glad, and I will answer him who reproaches me [with] a word.

12 [When] the clever sees danger, he hides; the simple go on [and] suffer.

13 Take his garment, for he gives surety [to] a stranger, and to {an adulteress}--[so] take his pledge.

14 He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, a curse will be reckoned to him.

15 Dripping constantly on a day of heavy rain and a woman of contention are alike.

16 [In] restraining her, he restrains wind, and his right hand will grasp oil.

17 [As] iron sharpens iron, so {one man sharpens another}.

18 He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who guards his master will be honored.

19 As the waters [reflect] {face to face}, so the heart of a person [reflects] the person.

Proverbs 27:9-19 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "because of advice of a person"
• [b]. Literally "a foreign woman"
• [c]. Or "wife"
• [d]. Or "breath, or "spirit"
• [e]. Or "fat"
• [f]. Or "is united with"
• [g]. Literally "a man sharpens [the] faces of his friend"
• [h]. Or "lord"
• [i]. Literally "the faces to the faces"