Proverbs 17

A dry crust of bread with peace and quiet is better than a house full of feasting with fighting.

1Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.

Note"Sacrifices" here does not mean a religious ritual so much as the meal that followed one. When an animal was offered, only a portion was burned; the rest was cooked and eaten by the family and guests. So "a house full of sacrifices" meant a house full of meat and celebration, the richest kind of feast an ordinary household ever saw.

2A wise servant will end up ruling over a son who brings shame on the family, and he will share the inheritance along with the sons.

2A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren.

NoteThe "servant" is a household slave or bonded worker, who normally owned nothing and inherited nothing. Property passed to sons only. For a servant to rule the heir and take a share alongside the sons would have struck the first hearers as a startling reversal of the ordinary order.

3The melting pot tests silver and the furnace tests gold, but the LORD is the one who tests hearts.

3The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.

NoteThe "fining pot" is a crucible. Silver and gold ore were heated until the metal melted and the impurities separated out and could be skimmed away, a process that both purified the metal and revealed how much of it was genuine. The proverb applies that image to the LORD and the human heart, leaving both senses, purifying and revealing, in play.

4A person who does evil pays attention to lips that lie, and a liar listens closely to a tongue that destroys.

4A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.

Note"Naughty" in 1611 English was a strong word, not the mild one it is today: it meant wicked or good-for-nothing. The Hebrew word behind it suggests a tongue that ruins and swallows people up.

5Whoever makes fun of a poor person insults the God who made him, and whoever is glad when disaster strikes will not go unpunished.

5Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.

6Grandchildren are the crown of old people, and the pride of children is their fathers.

6Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.

7Fine, polished speech does not fit a fool. Lying lips fit a ruler even less.

7Excellent speech becometh not a fool: much less do lying lips a prince.

Note"Becometh not" means "does not suit" or "is unbecoming to." A "fool" in Proverbs is not someone of low intelligence but someone morally bent, a person who refuses correction and lives as though right and wrong do not matter. The Hebrew phrase translated "excellent speech" is itself ambiguous: it can mean fine, elevated, eloquent language, or arrogant, overblown language. "Prince" means a noble or ruler, someone with authority.

8In the eyes of the one who uses it, a bribe works like a magic charm. Wherever he turns, he seems to succeed.

8A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.

NoteThe KJV's "gift" means a bribe. The "precious stone" is a charm or amulet: ancient Near Eastern people carried engraved stones believed to bring luck and open doors. The proverb is describing how a bribe looks to the man who hands it over, magic that works every time, without saying it truly does.

9Whoever covers over an offense is looking for love, but whoever keeps bringing the matter up drives close friends apart.

9He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Note"Covereth a transgression" means passing over an offense rather than exposing it. "Seeketh love" is a Hebrew idiom for promoting or fostering goodwill between people; it is not about looking for affection for oneself. "Very friends" is old English for "close friends", "very" here means genuine or intimate.

10A single correction sinks deeper into a person with sense than a hundred lashes sink into a fool.

10A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.

Note"Stripes" are lashes from a whip or rod. Flogging was a standard judicial punishment; Israelite law capped it at forty strokes, so "an hundred" is deliberate exaggeration, even a punishment beyond what the law allowed would not reach a fool as far as one word of correction reaches a person with sense.

11An evil man is looking only to rebel, so a cruel messenger will be sent against him.

11An evil man seeketh only rebellion: therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

NoteThe "cruel messenger" is an envoy or officer dispatched by a king, the man sent to arrest or execute a rebel. The Hebrew word for messenger is the same one elsewhere translated "angel," and the proverb does not specify who does the sending.

12It is better to run into a bear whose cubs have been taken than to run into a fool in the middle of his foolishness.

12Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

Note"Whelps" are cubs. Bears lived in the hill country of ancient Israel, and a mother bear separated from her cubs was the standard byword for the most dangerous thing a traveler could meet. The proverb puts the fool in the worse position of the two.

13If anyone pays back evil for good, evil will never leave his house.

13Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.

14Starting a quarrel is like making the first crack that lets water through a dam. So drop the argument before it bursts out.

14The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.

NoteThe picture is a breach in an earthen dam or irrigation channel: once water starts through a small opening it widens the gap itself, and cannot be stopped. "Before it be meddled with" uses "meddle" in its older sense of breaking out or coming to blows, quit the argument before it bursts.

15Letting a guilty person go free, and condemning an innocent one: the LORD hates them both.

15He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.

Note"Justifieth" and "condemneth" are courtroom words: to declare someone legally innocent and to declare someone legally guilty. The proverb is about corrupt verdicts, not private opinions. "Abomination" translates a strong Hebrew word for something detestable, used most often of practices treated as intolerable in Israel's law.

16Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom, when he has no desire to learn?

16Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?

Note"A price in the hand" is cash, the fee paid to a teacher of wisdom, who instructed pupils for money much as any craftsman charged for training. "He hath no heart to it" uses "heart" in the Hebrew sense of the mind and will together: the fool has neither the intention nor the desire.

17A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for times of trouble.

17A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Note"Brother" carries its full ancient weight: a member of your own family, whose duty to stand by you in a crisis was simply assumed rather than chosen. The two lines can be read as saying the same thing twice or as setting friend and brother side by side; the Hebrew leaves both open.

18A person with no sense shakes hands on a deal and takes on responsibility for his neighbor's debt, right in front of him.

18A man void of understanding striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend.

NoteStriking or shaking hands was the legal gesture that sealed a guarantee, the equivalent of signing a contract. "Surety" means a co-signer: a person who becomes personally liable for someone else's debt and can lose his property, and in the worst case his freedom, if the borrower defaults. "In the presence of his friend" is ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean he guarantees the debt on his neighbor's behalf, or that he does it publicly, in front of him.

19Whoever loves a fight loves doing wrong, and whoever builds his gate high is asking to be ruined.

19He loveth transgression that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction.

Note"He that exalteth his gate" most likely means building an unusually high or grand doorway onto your house, a conspicuous display of wealth that invited both envy and thieves. Some readers have taken "gate" as a figure for the mouth, opening it too wide; the Hebrew allows both.

20A person with a twisted heart finds nothing good, and a person with a lying tongue falls into trouble.

20He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief.

Note"Froward" is an obsolete English word meaning crooked, twisted or contrary, the opposite of straight. "Mischief" in 1611 English meant serious harm or disaster, not a harmless prank.

21Whoever fathers a fool brings sorrow on himself. The father of a fool has no joy.

21He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a fool hath no joy.

22A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

22A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

NoteIn Hebrew thought the bones were the seat of a person's physical strength and vitality, the innermost part of the body. "Dry bones" means drained strength, a body that has lost its sap, the way a green branch does when it withers.

23A wicked man accepts a bribe passed to him in secret, to bend justice out of its proper course.

23A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.

NoteThe "bosom" is the fold of a robe above the belt, which people used as a pocket for money and small valuables. A payment taken "out of the bosom" is one passed discreetly from inside the clothing, out of sight. "To pervert the ways of judgment" means to bend the course of a legal case away from its proper outcome.

24A person with understanding keeps wisdom right in front of him, but a fool's eyes wander off to the ends of the earth.

24Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.

25A foolish son brings grief to his father and bitterness to the mother who gave birth to him.

25A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.

26It is also not good to punish an innocent person, or to beat officials for being honest.

26Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity.

Note"Strike" means to flog or beat. "Princes" here are nobles or officials, the men who administered justice. "For equity" means because of their uprightness: punishing officials precisely for doing the honest thing.

27A person who has knowledge holds back his words, and a person with understanding keeps a calm spirit.

27He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.

Note"Of an excellent spirit" renders a Hebrew phrase that the ancient copies read two different ways: one meaning a cool or calm spirit, unheated by anger, and the other a precious or restrained one. Either way the point is temperature of temper, not quality of character in general.

28Even a fool is counted wise while he stays quiet. When he keeps his mouth shut, people think he understands.

28Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.