Proverbs 27

Chapter 27

¹Don’t brag about tomorrow,

since you don’t know what the day will bring.

²Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth—

a stranger, not your own lips.

³A stone is heavy and sand is weighty,

but the resentment caused by a fool is even heavier.

⁴Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood,

but jealousy is even more dangerous.

⁵An open rebuke

is better than hidden love!

⁶Wounds from a sincere friend

are better than many kisses from an enemy.

⁷A person who is full refuses honey,

but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.

⁸A person who strays from home

is like a bird that strays from its nest.

⁹The heartfelt counsel of a friend

is as sweet as perfume and incense.

¹⁰Never abandon a friend—

either yours or your father’s.

When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance.

It’s better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away.

¹¹Be wise, my child, and make my heart glad.

Then I will be able to answer my critics.

¹²A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.

The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

¹³Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.

Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.

¹⁴A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning

will be taken as a curse!

¹⁵A quarrelsome wife is as annoying

as constant dripping on a rainy day.

¹⁶Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind

or trying to hold something with greased hands.

¹⁷As iron sharpens iron,

so a friend sharpens a friend.

¹⁸As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit,

so workers who protect their employer’s interests will be rewarded.

¹⁹As a face is reflected in water,

so the heart reflects the real person.

²⁰Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied,

so human desire is never satisfied.

²¹Fire tests the purity of silver and gold,

but a person is tested by being praised.

²²You cannot separate fools from their foolishness,

even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.

²³Know the state of your flocks,

and put your heart into caring for your herds,

²⁴for riches don’t last forever,

and the crown might not be passed to the next generation.

²⁵After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears

and the mountain grasses are gathered in,

²⁶your sheep will provide wool for clothing,

and your goats will provide the price of a field.

²⁷And you will have enough goats’ milk for yourself,

your family, and your servant girls.