Proverbs 27:1-27
27 Do not make your boast about the next day,+ for you do not know what a day will give birth to.+
2 May a stranger, and not your own mouth, praise you; may a foreigner, and not your own lips, do so.+
3 The heaviness of a stone and a load of sand+—but the vexation by someone foolish is heavier than both of them.+
4 There is the cruelty of rage, also the flood of anger,+ but who can stand before jealousy?+
5 Better is a revealed reproof+ than a concealed love.
6 The wounds inflicted by a lover* are faithful,+ but the kisses of a hater are things to be entreated.*+
7 A soul that is satisfied will tread down comb honey, but to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.+
8 Just like a bird fleeing away from its nest,+ so is a man fleeing away from his place.+
9 Oil and incense+ are what make the heart rejoice, also the sweetness of one’s companion due to the counsel of the soul.+
10 Do not leave your own companion or the companion of your father, and do not enter the house of your own brother on the day of your disaster. Better is a neighbor that is near than a brother that is far away.+
11 Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice,+ that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.+
12 The shrewd one that has seen the calamity has concealed himself;+ the inexperienced that have passed along have suffered the penalty.+
13 Take one’s garment, in case one has gone surety for a stranger;+ and in the instance of a foreign woman, seize from him a pledge.+
14 He that is blessing his fellowman with a loud voice early in the morning, as a malediction it will be accounted on his part.+
15 A leaking roof that drives one away in the day of a steady rain and a contentious wife are comparable.+
16 Anyone sheltering her has sheltered the wind, and oil is what his right hand encounters.*
17 By iron, iron itself is sharpened. So one man* sharpens the face of another.*+
18 He that is safeguarding the fig tree will himself eat its fruit,+ and he that is guarding his master* will be honored.+
19 As in water face corresponds with face, so the heart of a man* with [that of] a man.
20 Sheʹol and [the place of] destruction*+ themselves do not get satisfied;+ neither do the eyes of a man get satisfied.+
21 The refining pot is for silver,+ and the furnace is for gold;+ and an individual is according to his praise.+
22 Even if you should pound the foolish one fine with a pestle in a mortar, in among cracked grain, his foolishness will not depart from him.+
23 You ought to know positively the appearance of your flock. Set your heart to your droves;+
24 for treasure will not be to time indefinite,+ nor a diadem for all generations.
25 The green grass has departed, and the new grass has appeared, and the vegetation of the mountains has been gathered.+
26 The young rams are for your clothing,+ and the he-goats are the price of the field.
27 And there is a sufficiency of goats’ milk for your food, for the food of your household, and the means+ of life for your girls.
Footnotes
^ Or, “friend.” Heb., ʼoh·hevʹ.
^ Possibly, “are excessive”; or, “are corrupted,” by corrections of M.
^ Or, “and the oil of his right hand calls out (betrays itself).”
^ “So one man.” Heb., weʼishʹ.
^ So this vs may read by slight changes of vowel pointing of M, to agree with TLXXSyVg.
^ “His master.” Heb., ʼadho·navʹ, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence.
^ Lit., “so the heart of the earthling man.” Heb., ken lev-ha·ʼa·dhamʹ.
