27
📚Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what
a day may bring forth.
2 📚Let another man praise you
and not your own mouth,
a stranger and not your own lips.
3 📚A stone is heavy and
the sand weighty,
but a fool’s wrath is heavier
than both of them.
4 📚Wrath is cruel and
anger is overwhelming,
but who is able to stand before envy?
27:4 Matt 27:18. Envy is one of the worst and most destructive passions that can possess men.⚜
5 📚Open rebuke is better
than love concealed.
6 📚Faithful are the wounds
of a friend,
but the kisses of an enemy are
deceitful.
27:5-6 Let us, like David (Ps 141:5), understand the value of rebukes. Far better to be pierced by a friend than petted by a foe.⚜
7 📚The full soul loathes a honeycomb,
but to the hungry soul every
bitter thing is sweet.
8 📚As a bird that wanders from her nest,
so is a man who wanders
from his place.
9 📚Oil and perfume rejoice the heart;
so does the sweetness of a man’s friend
through hearty counsel.
10 📚Do not forsake your own friend
and your father’s friend,
or go into your brother’s house on the day
of your calamity.
For better is a neighbour
who is near than a brother far off.
11 📚My son, be wise and make my heart glad,
that I may answer him who insults me.
12 📚A prudent man sees disaster
coming and hides himself,
but the simple go on and
pay the penalty.
13 📚Take the garment of the one who puts up
security for a stranger,
and take a pledge from him
for a strange woman.
14 📚He who blesses his friend with
a loud voice, early in the morning,
it will be regarded as a curse to him.
15 📚A continual dripping on a very rainy day
and a quarrelsome woman are alike.
16 📚Whoever restrains her can
restrain the wind and grasp oil
with his right hand!
17 📚Iron sharpens iron;
so a man sharpens the countenance
of his friend.
27:17 Our contacts with others, especially with those who are close to us, can help shape our character and make us better instruments in God’s service.⚜
18 📚Whoever keeps the fig tree will eat its fruit;
so he who waits on his master will be honoured.
19 📚As in water face reflects face,
so the heart of man reflects man.
27:19 A man is what he is inwardly, not what he seems to be outwardly.⚜
20 📚Hell and destruction 📖 are never full,
so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
27:20 1 John 2:16. It is the nature of fallen man always to want more than he has, never to be satisfied.⚜
21 📚The refining pot is for silver
and the furnace for gold;
so is a man tested by the praise
he receives.
27:21 Praise tests whether a man is proud, or hungry for praise, or foolish enough to accept flattery, or humble, or desirous of seeing only God praised.⚜
22 📚Though you pound a fool in a mortar
with a pestle along with wheat,
still his foolishness will not leave him.
23 📚Be careful to know the state
of your flocks,
and look after your herds well.
24 📚For riches are not forever,
and the crown does not last
to every generation.
25 📚The hay appears,
and the tender grass shows itself,
and herbs of the mountains are gathered in.
26 📚The lambs are for your clothing,
and the goats are the price for the field.
27 📚And you will have goats’ milk
enough for your food,
for the food of your household,
and for the maintenance
of your maidens.
27:23-27 Jesus’ instruction not to worry about the future (Matt 6:25-34) does not mean that care and thought should not be taken to provide for one’s household.⚜