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.
Ver. 10. Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not.] To forsake a friend, an old friend especially, is to forsake one's self: for a friend is a second self, and friendship, as wine, is commendable from its oldness. What a price set Solomon upon Hiram, who had been his father's friend; 1Ki 5:1-12 and how did he seek his love, as a precious inheritance left him, as it were, by his father; and how courteously, for his father's sake, likewise dealt he with Abiathar, that had dealt disloyally with him.
Neither go into thy brother's house.] Cajetan reads it, and perhaps better, Thy brother's house will not come in the day of thy calamity, when thine old friend will visit thee and stick close to thee, as Jonathan did to David, and Onesiphorus to Paul. David complains of his carnal kindred, - "My lovers and my friends stand afar off from my sore, and mine acquaintance stand aloof," Psa 88:18 as the priest and Levite did from the wounded man, when the Samaritan, a stranger, but a neighbour indeed, relieved him.