Proverbs 25:17

17 Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he become weary of you and hate you.

Proverbs 25:17 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 25:17

Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house
Not but that it is commendable to be neighbourly and friendly, or for one neighbour to visit another; but then it should not be very frequent; a man should not be always or often at his neighbour's house. So the words may be rendered, "make thy foot precious" or "rare at thy neighbour's house" F13; be seldom there; lest he be weary of thee, and [so] hate thee;
or, "lest he be sated with thee" F14; filled with thy company to a loathing of it, as the stomach with eating too much honey, and so his friendship be turned into hatred.


FOOTNOTES:

F13 (rqx) "rarum fac", Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus, Michaelis, Cocceius; Heb. "praetiosum fac", Piscator.
F14 (Kebvy Np) "ne forte satictur tui", Schultens; so Montanus; "saturatus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Proverbs 25:17 In-Context

15 With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.
16 If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you be sated with it and vomit it.
17 Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he become weary of you and hate you.
18 A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.
19 Trust in a faithless man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.