The big picture
Proverbs continues its advice to learners with a warning against boasting about tomorrow. Praise is better received from another mouth, and a friend's correction can be more faithful than an enemy's kisses. The sayings consider nearby help, timing, quarrels, mutual influence, and desires that never seem full. The closing advice turns to flocks and fields. Wealth and royal standing do not last by themselves. Care for living resources supplies a household and its workers with food and clothing.
In this chapter
- Honest Rebuke Matters More Than False Warmth Proverbs 27:1-6
The teacher warns learners against boasting about a day they have not seen.
- Near Help and Fitting Timing Matter Proverbs 27:7-14
A full person rejects even honey, while hunger makes bitter food welcome.
- Companions Shape Character and Praise Tests It Proverbs 27:15-22
A quarrelsome wife is compared to a roof that keeps dripping.
- Know the Flocks That Feed the Household Proverbs 27:23-27
Close knowledge of the flocks and careful attention to the herds are required.
Central truth
Honest friendship, restrained pride, and steady care for resources help a household live well beyond the uncertain promise of tomorrow.
Scripture beside the summary
Proverbs · King James Version · 27Proverbs 27:1-6
Honest Rebuke Matters More Than False Warmth
The teacher warns learners against boasting about a day they have not seen. Praise should come from another voice rather than one's own. Foolish anger weighs more heavily than stone or sand, and envy can be still harder to face than open rage. The sayings then value honest rebuke above love kept hidden. A friend's painful correction can be faithful, while an enemy's many kisses deceive. The teacher values what helps a life, even when it hurts. Comfortable words and confident claims are not always kinder or truer than a difficult warning.
In everyday life
A theatre director tells a close colleague that the rehearsal is not ready for the promised opening date. The words hurt more than the visitor's ready compliments, but she shows the missing work and offers help. Her friendship risks displeasure rather than hiding the problem. The friendly warning fits; the poem's enemy is deceitful, unlike the mere visitor here.
Notice
Proverbs 27:6 The wound and kiss are judged by the relationship and purpose behind them. Pain is not automatically hostility, and pleasant contact is not automatically friendship.
Proverbs 27:1-6
King James Version1Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
2Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.
3A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.
4Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?
5Open rebuke is better than secret love.
6Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Proverbs 27:7-14
Near Help and Fitting Timing Matter
A full person rejects even honey, while hunger makes bitter food welcome. Wandering from home is like a bird away from its nest. A friend's heartfelt counsel refreshes like fragrance, and old friendships should not be abandoned. A nearby neighbour can help more than a distant brother in crisis. Wise conduct gives a parent an answer to critics. Foresight avoids danger. Anyone backing a stranger's debt risks losing the garment pledged to secure it. The last image is a loud early blessing received as a curse. Even goodwill needs a fitting time and awareness of another person's situation.
In everyday life
The next-door neighbour quietly leaves a hot meal at the door after learning that the household has spent the night at hospital. She sends a brief message. She does not ring repeatedly or wait for thanks. Her nearby care fits their exhaustion. A distant relative is still arranging travel. Proverbs weighs kinship and lasting loyalty too; a well-timed meal meets one immediate need.
Notice
Proverbs 27:14 Volume and timing can turn a blessing into an unwelcome act. Good words do not excuse ignoring the person who must receive them.
Proverbs 27:7-14
King James Version7The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
8As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.
9Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.
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.
11My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me.
12A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.
13Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
14He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.
Proverbs 27:15-22
Companions Shape Character and Praise Tests It
A quarrelsome wife is compared to a roof that keeps dripping. Concealing the conflict is as difficult as hiding wind or scented oil. Friends sharpen one another like iron, and faithful service gains reward like tending a fruit tree. A reflected face suggests how hearts answer one another. Yet human eyes remain unsatisfied, like death that never fills. Praise tests a person as heat tests metal. The closing image says that even crushing a fool like grain will not remove folly. Force alone cannot create the teachable heart that change requires.
In everyday life
A craft-guild member hears warm praise for her work and asks her closest colleague what still needs improving. He points to an uneven join, and she studies it instead of defending the applause. Their friendship sharpens the next piece. Praise has tested whether she remains teachable. This worker accepts correction; the fool described at the end resists even crushing force.
Notice
Proverbs 27:21 Praise is pictured as a test rather than only a reward. A person's response to admiration can reveal the quality that success appears to confirm.
Proverbs 27:15-22
King James Version15A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.
16Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself.
17Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
18Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.
19As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
20Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
21As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.
22Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
Proverbs 27:23-27
Know the Flocks That Feed the Household
Close knowledge of the flocks and careful attention to the herds are required. Wealth does not last forever, and a crown does not guarantee security through every generation. Grass grows, hay is cut, and mountain plants are gathered. These seasonal resources support the animals, which supply clothing, value for land, and milk. The household and its female workers need that continuing provision. The advice ends with attentive care rather than display. Living resources stay useful through knowledge and work, not through assuming yesterday's wealth will always remain.
In everyday life
A goat keeper walks the pens each morning, checks feed and hooves, and notes which animals need care before reviewing the bank balance. Milk for the household and wages for the workers depend on those daily observations. A good season has ended. Tomorrow still has its duties. The ancient household relies directly on its animals for clothing, land, and food, without a bank account.
Notice
Proverbs 27:27 The milk supports household members and workers. The final measure of careful husbandry is enough provision for the people who depend on it.
Proverbs 27:23-27
King James Version23Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.
24For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation?
25The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered.
26The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.
27And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Proverbs 27:1 begins with “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”
Where the chapter turns
Proverbs 27:4 forms a natural hinge: “Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?”
The final note
Proverbs 27:27 leaves the reader with “And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words friend, heart, hideth, better, face, food help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- bewrayeth
- Reveals or makes something known despite an attempt to hide it.
- bray
- Crush or pound, as grain in a mortar.
- pestle
- A heavy tool used to pound material in a bowl-shaped mortar.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
