Proverbs › Chapter 27

Proverbs 27

27 verses, grouped into the passages they belong to.

Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.

Tomorrow is not yours to promise. The verse forbids the boast rather than the planning, and gives the reason in one clause: you do not know.

Proverbs 27:2

Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips.

Praise is something that arrives, not something you issue. The verse does not forbid being praised; it forbids being the source.

Proverbs 27:3

A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, But a fool's wrath is heavier than both of them.

Two of the heaviest things a person could be asked to carry, and the verse says a fool's anger outweighs them.

Proverbs 27:4

Wrath is cruel and anger a torrent, But who is able to stand before jealousy?

Rage is bad and jealousy is worse. The verse ends in a question because it does not think there is an answer.

Proverbs 27:5

Open rebuke is better Than love carefully concealed.

Correction said out loud beats affection kept quiet. The verse is comparing two goods and says the visible one wins.

Proverbs 27:6

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

A friend who hurts you is telling the truth. An enemy who is affectionate is not. The verse sorts by reliability, not by how it feels.

Proverbs 27:7

A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, But to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

Appetite decides taste. The verse observes that the same food is repulsive or wonderful depending entirely on the person's condition.

Proverbs 27:8

Like a bird that wanders from its nest Is a man who wanders from his place.

Somebody away from where they belong is exposed in a way they may not feel yet. The verse uses one word twice to make the comparison exact.

Proverbs 27:9

Ointment and perfume delight the heart, And the sweetness of a man's friend gives delight by hearty counsel.

Good counsel from a friend lands the way a fragrance does. The verse compares advice to something you experience rather than something you evaluate.

Proverbs 27:10

Do not forsake your own friend or your father's friend, Nor go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity; Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.

Keep the old friendships, including your father's. When trouble comes, proximity matters more than blood, and the verse says so plainly.

Proverbs 27:11

My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, That I may answer him who reproaches me.

A father asks his son for wisdom and gives an unusually honest reason: it would let him answer the people who mock him.

Proverbs 27:12

A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; The simple pass on and are punished.

One man sees it coming and gets out of the way; the others walk into it. The difference is foresight, and the verse treats it as a skill.

Proverbs 27:13

Take the garment of him who is surety for a stranger, And hold it in pledge when he is surety for a seductress.

The same practical instruction as 20:16: if a man has guaranteed a stranger's debt, get collateral before you extend him anything.

Proverbs 27:14

He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, It will be counted a curse to him.

Right sentiment, wrong volume, wrong hour. The verse is funny and it is making a real point about timing.

The Contentious Wife and the Wind

Proverbs 27:15–16

Read the whole unit The first verse takes chapter 19's dripping image and makes it worse by adding weather.

Proverbs 27:15

A continual dripping on a very rainy day And a contentious woman are alike;

A house in constant conflict is a leak during a downpour: the one place you went to get out of the weather is letting it in. The verse is about a household at war, not about women.

Proverbs 27:16

Whoever restrains her restrains the wind, And grasps oil with his right hand.

The second half is about the man's attempt to manage it, and it says the attempt does not work. Holding the wind and gripping oil are two pictures of the same failure.

Proverbs 27:17

As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

People sharpen each other the way blades do, and blades are sharpened by friction against something equally hard. The verse is about the contact, not about encouragement.

Proverbs 27:18

Whoever keeps the fig tree will eat its fruit; So he who waits on his master will be honored.

Tend the tree and you eat from it. Serve well and the honor comes. The verse observes that patient attention gets paid, without saying when.

Proverbs 27:19

As in water face reflects face, So a man's heart reveals the man.

Still water shows you your own face. The verse says a person's heart does the same thing, and the comparison is about accuracy rather than about insight into others.

Proverbs 27:20

Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.

The realm of the dead never fills up, and neither does human wanting. The verse compares two appetites and says both are bottomless.

Proverbs 27:21

The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, And a man is valued by what others say of him.

The same furnace image, redirected. At 17:3 the LORD tests hearts; here the test is praise, and what it measures is debated.

Proverbs 27:22

Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, Yet his foolishness will not depart from him.

Pulverize him and the folly survives. The verse is the book's bleakest statement about the limits of correction.

Know the State of Your Flocks

Proverbs 27:23–27

The chapter ends with a five-verse discourse, the only sustained passage in Collection V, and it is a small essay on where security actually comes from.

Proverbs 27:23

Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, And attend to your herds;

Know your animals yourself. The verse asks for firsthand attention rather than a report, and it is the command the rest of the passage explains.

Proverbs 27:24

For riches are not forever, Nor does a crown endure to all generations.

Money runs out and status does not transfer indefinitely. This is the because underneath the command to tend the flocks.

Proverbs 27:25

When the hay is removed, and the tender grass shows itself, And the herbs of the mountains are gathered in,

The cycle turns. Old growth is cut, new growth appears, and the hillside is harvested, which is the machinery the whole passage depends on.

Proverbs 27:26

The lambs will provide your clothing, And the goats the price of a field;

Wool becomes clothes and goats become land. The verse shows the flock converting into the two things a household needs beyond food.

Proverbs 27:27

You shall have enough goats' milk for your food, For the food of your household, And the nourishment of your maidservants.

There will be enough, and the verse widens twice to say who is included: you, your household, and the servant girls who work there.

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