Proverbs 25:17

17 Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor's house, Or he will 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.

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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 By forbearance a ruler may be persuaded, And a soft tongue breaks the bone.

16 Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, That you not have it in excess and vomit it.

17 Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor's house, Or he will become weary of you and hate you.

18 Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow Is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.

19 Like a bad tooth and an unsteady foot Is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble.

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "surfeited with"