Proverbs 27
Big idea: This chapter is about proximity — who is near enough to matter. A friend who wounds, a neighbour closer than a distant brother, a wife whose contention is the drip you cannot get away from, iron sharpened by iron, a face in water. It ends somewhere unexpected: twelve chapters of aphorism give way to five verses of farm management, and the reason is the same one. Riches do not last; the flock you actually watch does.
Chapter 26 catalogues the fool, the sluggard and the deceiver. Chapter 27 is about who is close enough to wound you; chapter 28 widens to the public square.
27:1–14 — The wounds of a friend are faithful
Fourteen couplets on the people near you and what they are worth. The famous pairing sits at verses 5–6 — open rebuke against hidden love, a friend's wounds against an enemy's kisses — and the run keeps testing the same question from different angles: whose praise, whose counsel, whose house in trouble, whose blessing shouted too early in the morning.
1 Don’t boast about tomorrow; for you don’t know what a day may bring. 2 Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips. 3 A stone is heavy, and sand is a burden; but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both. 4 Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is able to stand before jealousy? 5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love. 6 The wounds of a friend are faithful, although the kisses of an enemy are profuse. 7 A full soul loathes a honeycomb; but to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. 8 As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his home. 9 Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man’s friend. 10 Don’t forsake your friend and your father’s friend. Don’t go to your brother’s house in the day of your disaster. A neighbor who is near is better than a distant brother. 11 Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart, then I can answer my tormentor. 12 A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it. 13 Take his garment when he puts up collateral for a stranger. Hold it for a wayward woman! 14 He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse by him.
27:15–27 — Iron sharpens iron, and know the state of your flocks
The run holds the chapter's best-known line and then does something the anthology has not done in twelve chapters: it stops. Verses 23–27 are not couplets at all but a single sustained instruction about livestock — know your flocks, watch the seasons, and the wool and milk will keep coming. Placed after 'riches are not forever', it reads as the collection's answer to what you should attend to instead.
15 A continual dropping on a rainy day and a contentious wife are alike: 16 restraining her is like restraining the wind, or like grasping oil in his right hand. 17 Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend’s countenance. 18 Whoever tends the fig tree shall eat its fruit. He who looks after his master shall be honored. 19 Like water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man. 20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; and a man’s eyes are never satisfied. 21 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but man is refined by his praise. 22 Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him. 23 Know well the state of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds, 24 for riches are not forever, nor does the crown endure to all generations. 25 The hay is removed, and the new growth appears, the grasses of the hills are gathered in. 26 The lambs are for your clothing, and the goats are the price of a field. 27 There will be plenty of goats’ milk for your food, for your family’s food, and for the nourishment of your servant girls.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).