Proverbs 27:10-21

10 Do not forsake your friend and ¹your father's friend, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. ²Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.

11 ³Be wise, ⁴my son, and ⁵make my heart glad, that I may ⁶answer him who reproaches me.

12 ⁷The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but ⁸the simple go on and suffer for it.

13 ⁹Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger, and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for an adulteress.^[a]

14 Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.

15 ¹⁰A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike;

16 to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp^[b] oil in one's right hand.

17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.^[c]

18 ¹¹Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who ¹²guards his master will be honored.

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

20 ¹³Sheol and Abaddon are ¹⁴never satisfied, and ¹⁵never satisfied are the eyes of man.

21 ¹⁶The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.

Proverbs 27:10-21 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. See 1 Kings 12:6-8; 2 Chronicles 10:6-8
• 2. See Proverbs 17:17
• 3. Proverbs 6:6
• 4. Proverbs 10:1; Proverbs 23:15, 24
• 5. See Proverbs 29:3
• 6. Psalms 119:42; [Psalms 127:5]
• 7. Proverbs 22:3
• 8. See Proverbs 1:4
• 9. See Proverbs 20:16
• 10. Proverbs 19:13
• 11. Song of Songs 8:12; 1 Corinthians 3:8; 1 Corinthians 9:7; 2 Timothy 2:6
• 12. [Matthew 25:21]
• 13. Proverbs 15:11; See Job 26:6
• 14. Proverbs 30:15, 16; Habakkuk 2:5; [Proverbs 1:12]
• 15. Ecclesiastes 1:8; Ecclesiastes 4:8
• 16. Proverbs 17:3

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew a foreign woman; a slight emendation yields (compare Vulgate; see also 20:16) foreigners
• [b]. Hebrew to meet with
• [c]. Hebrew sharpens the face of another