Proverbs 27:1 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

A collection of aphorisms on various subjects.

Proverbs 27:3. cf. Sir_22:14 f. The comparison suggests that vexation is out of place. It is the fool that is a bore, not his anger.

Proverbs 27:4 a Lit. ruthlessness of wrath, torrent of anger, or wrath is ruthlessness, anger a torrent.

Proverbs 27:6. profuse: a doubtful translation of an obscure Heb. word, although Matthew 26:49 (viz. the force of κατὰ? in κατεφίλησεν) is quoted in support. AV deceitful depends upon an emendation following the Lat.

Proverbs 27:8. Cheyne finds a reference to the Exile. Toy allows only a general reference to home-sickness.

Proverbs 27:9 b. The Heb. is untranslatable. It may be a scribal corruption of Proverbs 27:7 b. The LXX reads but the soul is rent by misfortunes, which yields a better sense than Toy grants, if Proverbs 27:9 a be taken as a description of the pleasures of prosperity.

Proverbs 27:10. Three unconnected lines. It is impossible to restore the original form.

Proverbs 27:12. cf. Proverbs 22:3.

Proverbs 27:13. cf. Proverbs 20:16.

Proverbs 27:14. Probably an ironical reference to fulsome public flattery as more injurious than beneficial to its object.

Proverbs 27:15. cf. Proverbs 19:13.

Proverbs 27:16. Corrupt. RV connects it with the preceding couplet. The force of Proverbs 27:16 b is that the woman of Proverbs 27:15 is as difficult to restrain as slippery oil. This is the traditional Jewish exegesis. The LXX disconnects it from Proverbs 27:15, and renders The north wind is a bitter wind, but by its name is called well-omened.

Proverbs 27:19 a. The lit. rendering, As water face to face, gives no sense. LXX has As faces do not resemble faces, so do not the minds of men. Probably we should read, As face to face, so mind to mind i.e. possibly an Oriental equivalent of quot homines tot sententiæ.

Proverbs 27:20. cf. Proverbs 15:11.

Proverbs 27:23-27. A short poem of five couplets dealing with the value of cattle to the farmer; cf. a somewhat similar fragment of agricultural wisdom in Isaiah 28:23-29.

Proverbs 27:25. cf. Amos 7:1 f. The stages indicated are: (a) the regular hay harvest (in Amos appropriated for taxation), (b) the after growth, (c) the produce of the mountain pastures, which was also stored by the careful farmer.

Related Commentaries of Proverbs 27:1

Proverbs 27:1-27

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

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

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

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

5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.

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

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

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

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

10 Thine 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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