Proverbs 27

Do not brag about what you will do tomorrow. You do not know what a single day will bring.

1Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

2Let someone else praise you instead of praising yourself. Let a stranger do it, not your own lips.

2Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.

3A stone is heavy and sand is a load to carry, but the trouble a fool stirs up weighs more than both.

3A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.

4Rage is cruel, and anger sweeps over people like a flood. But who can stand up against jealousy?

4Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

Note"Outrageous" in 1611 English meant overwhelming or overflowing, like a flood bursting its banks, not "shocking" as it means today. The word rendered "envy" (Hebrew qin'ah) covers both envy of what another has and the jealousy of someone who feels their own claim threatened; Hebrew uses one word for both, and the proverb does not choose between them.

5It is better to be corrected openly than to be loved in a way that is never shown.

5Open rebuke is better than secret love.

Note"Secret love" in the King James does not mean a romance kept hidden. It means affection that is felt but never acted on or shown, love that stays concealed and so does the person no good, as against correction that is given out in the open.

6The wounds a friend gives you can be trusted, but an enemy's kisses are meant to fool you.

6Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

7A person who has eaten his fill turns away from honey. To a hungry person, even bitter food tastes sweet.

7The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

Note"Soul" here translates the Hebrew nephesh, which in this kind of saying means appetite or throat rather than the inner spirit. "The full soul" is a person with a full stomach; "the hungry soul" is an empty one.

8A man who wanders away from his home is like a bird that strays from its nest.

8As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.

NoteA man's "place" meant his household, his family's plot of land, and the clan that went with it. Someone away from it had no relatives close by to speak for him, feed him, or defend his rights in a dispute, hence the picture of a bird outside the nest, exposed.

9Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and so does the sweetness of a friend who gives advice from the heart.

9Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.

NoteScented olive oil was rubbed on skin and hair at feasts and to welcome guests; in a hot, dusty climate this was ordinary comfort and hospitality, not perfumery for its own sake. The second half of this verse is unusually compressed in Hebrew and translators differ: some read "the sweetness of a friend is better than one's own counsel."

10Do not abandon your own friend or your father's friend. When trouble strikes you, do not go to your brother's house. A neighbor close by is better than a brother far away.

10Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.

Note"Thy father's friend" is not a casual acquaintance. Households formed lasting alliances of mutual aid that passed from one generation to the next, and such a bond carried real obligations. The saying's point turns on distance: a brother had the stronger claim on you by blood, but a neighbor who lives nearby can actually arrive when trouble comes.

11My son, be wise and make my heart glad, so that I can answer anyone who insults me.

11My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me.

NoteIn this culture a child's conduct was taken as public evidence about the parent who raised him. Someone who "reproacheth" the father is taunting him about his own worth; a wise son is the answer to the taunt.

12A person with good sense sees trouble coming and takes cover, but the thoughtless walk right into it and pay for it.

12A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.

Note"The simple" translates a Hebrew word for someone naive and untrained, open to any suggestion, not yet having learned to see what is coming. It does not mean stupid. This verse repeats Proverbs 22:3 almost word for word; such repeats are normal in collections of proverbs.

13If a man guarantees the debt of a stranger, take his coat as security. If he does it for a foreign woman, take a pledge from him.

13Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

NoteTo be "surety" is to guarantee someone else's debt: if they fail to pay, you pay. The garment is the outer cloak, which poor people also slept under at night, taking it as a pledge was serious enough that the law required it be handed back by sundown (Exodus 22:26–27). The Hebrew behind "strange woman" can also be read as a plural, "foreigners"; ancient copies differ here and translators split between the two.

14If a man shouts a loud greeting to his neighbor early in the morning, it will be treated as a curse instead of a blessing.

14He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.

NoteA blessing shouted loudly at daybreak was suspect: it was the behavior of a flatterer making sure he was heard, or of someone rousing a household that was still asleep. The saying turns on the excess, not on the words themselves.

15A roof that keeps dripping on a rainy day and a wife who is always arguing are the same thing.

15A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.

NoteRoofs were flat, made of packed clay laid over wooden beams, and had to be re-rolled after rain; a badly kept one dripped steadily indoors through a wet day. The Hebrew for "contentious woman" is literally "a wife of quarrels", a wife who keeps up the argument, not any woman in general.

16Trying to hold her back is like trying to hold back the wind, or like trying to grab oil with your right hand.

16Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself.

Note"Bewrayeth" is an old English word meaning gives itself away or reveals itself, nothing to do with betrayal in the modern sense. Oil on the hand cannot be gripped and its scent announces itself. The Hebrew of this verse is among the most obscure in the book, and no translation of it is certain.

17Iron sharpens iron, and in the same way one person sharpens another.

17Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Note"Countenance" means face. The Hebrew of the second line reads literally "a man sharpens the face of his friend," and "face" here stands for the whole person as others encounter him, his manner, wits and bearing.

18Whoever takes care of a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever looks after his master will be honored.

18Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.

NoteA fig tree takes years of tending before it bears well, and the one who does the tending is the one entitled to eat from it. That patience is the point of the comparison with long service to a master.

19Water shows a face its own reflection, and in the same way a person's heart shows what that person really is.

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

NoteThere were no glass mirrors; polished bronze ones were costly, so most people saw their own face in a bowl or pool of still water. The second line has no verb in the Hebrew, literally "so the heart of man to man", and can be read either as a person's heart showing what he truly is, or as one person's heart reflecting another's.

20The place of the dead and the place of ruin are never full, and human eyes are never satisfied either.

20Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

Note"Hell" here translates Sheol, the Hebrew word for the grave, the place where all the dead go; it does not carry the later idea of a place of punishment. "Destruction" translates Abaddon, a word meaning "ruin" used as another name for the same realm. The image is of a pit that swallows everyone and is never filled up.

21Silver is tested in a melting pot and gold in a furnace, and a person is tested by the praise he is given.

21As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.

NoteA "fining pot" is a crucible: metal is melted in it so the impurities separate out and the true quality of the silver shows. The Hebrew of the last line is compressed and can be read two ways: that praise tests the man who receives it, or that a man is shown up by what he chooses to praise.

22You could crush a fool in a bowl with a grinding stick, like grain being ground, and his foolishness still would not leave him.

22Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

Note"Bray" means to pound or crush. Grain was hulled by pounding it in a stone bowl (the mortar) with a heavy club (the pestle) to knock the husk off the kernel. The joke is that the husk comes off grain but folly will not come off a fool.

23Take care to know how your flocks are doing, and pay close attention to your herds.

23Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.

Note"Flocks" are sheep and goats, "herds" cattle. In this economy livestock was the main durable wealth a household held, so knowing their condition animal by animal was the equivalent of watching one's accounts.

24Riches do not last forever. And does a crown stay in one family for all generations?

24For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation?

Note"Crown" stands for inherited standing and rule. The line is a rhetorical question in Hebrew, expecting the answer no: even a royal house does not keep its position automatically from one generation to the next.

25The hay is cut, then new grass comes up, and the plants of the hills are gathered in.

25The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered.

NoteThis describes the farming year rather than a single event: the first cutting of hay, the new growth that follows it, and the gathering of what grows wild on the hillsides for fodder. Herds could be kept fed year-round only by working with that cycle.

26The lambs will give you clothing, and selling the goats will pay for a field.

26The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.

NoteWool from the lambs was spun and woven for clothing; goats could be sold, and the price of a flock was reckoned enough to buy a field. Land was normally bought with livestock or produce rather than coin.

27You will have plenty of goats' milk to feed yourself, to feed your household, and to keep your servant girls fed as well.

27And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.

Note"Maidens" means the female servants of the household, not unmarried daughters. Feeding everyone under one's roof, servants included, was the head of the household's responsibility.