Proverbs 17:1-28
1 Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrificesa with strife.
2 A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren.
3 The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.
4 A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.
5 Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.b
6 Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.
7 Excellentc speech becometh not a fool: much less do lying lips a prince.
8 A gift is as a preciousd stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.
9 He that covereth a transgression seekethe love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.
10 A reproof enterethf more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.
11 An evil man seeketh only rebellion: therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.
12 Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
13 Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.
14 The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.
15 He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.
16 Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?
17 A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
18 A man void of understandingg striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend.
19 He loveth transgression that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction.
20 He that hath a frowardh heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief.
21 He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a fool hath no joy.
22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
23 A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.
24 Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
25 A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.
26 Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity.
27 He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a mani of understanding is of an excellent spirit.
28 Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
Proverbs 17. Fresh points are the rise of the able and clever slave to a place in the family (Proverbs 17:2), the practice of bribes (Proverbs 17:8; Proverbs 17:23), the value of adversity as a test of friendship (Proverbs 17:17): also the subject of suretyship, dealt with in Proverbs 6:1, is resumed (Proverbs 17:18).
Proverbs 17:1. For the connexion between sacrifices (mg.) and feasting cf. Proverbs 6:14. For sacrifice used to denote private slaying cf. Deuteronomy 12:15; Isaiah 34:6.
Proverbs 17:7. Excellent: the usual meaning is abundance, and possibly the sense is that copious speech only betrays a fool. A slight change gives upright, with a somewhat better antithesis. prince: cf. Proverbs 17:26 and Isaiah 32:5 for the sense of moral nobility, which better suits this passage, and render the noble, or as Toy, the man of rectitude.
Proverbs 17:8. The most intelligible rendering is a bribe is counted a means of procuring favour (lit. a stone of favour) by its owner (i.e. the briber) in all that he undertakes he succeeds. The expression stone of favour is without parallel in Heb. Frankenberg suggests that it may mean a lucky stone i.e. a magic stone or amulet.
Proverbs 17:9 b. Proverbs 16:28 *.
Proverbs 17:11 a. The lit. rendering is probably surely rebellion seeketh evil (cf. mg.). The abstract for the concrete is not supported by Heb. usage, and a slight change gives a rebellious man. The reference is probably not religious but political, but cf. Psalms 78:49.
Proverbs 17:12 a. cf. 2 Samuel 17:8; Hosea 13:8.
Proverbs 17:16. There may be a reference to the Gr. custom of paying fees to sophists and philosophers, since it does not appear that the Jewish Rabbis took payment for their instruction.
Proverbs 17:17. RVm is more exact than RV. The sense remains on the whole the same, although it no longer implies a higher degree of affection in the brother.
Proverbs 17:18. cf. Proverbs 6:1 * see also Proverbs 11:15; Proverbs 20:16; Proverbs 22:26; Proverbs 27:13.
Proverbs 17:19. transgression may have the social sense that it has in Exodus 22:9, trespass against a neighbour's property, in which case the unusual phrase raiseth high his gate may refer to encroachments upon a neighbour's property.
Proverbs 17:21. The word for fool in Proverbs 17:21 b occurs besides only in Pr. in Proverbs 17:7, Proverbs 30:22. It always connotes moral insensibility in the OT (cf. Psalms 14:1).
Proverbs 17:22. medicine: the word occurs only here and is thus translated by inference from Hosea 5:13. Read, with a slight change, body. The sense is the same. bones is another synonym for body. Render A weary heart makes a sound body, but a crushed spirit withers the body.
Proverbs 17:23. out of the bosom: lit. out of the lap i.e. out of the fold in the outer garment which serves the Oriental as a pocket (cf. Proverbs 16:33, Isaiah 40:11).
Proverbs 17:26. punish: properly fine (mg.), cf. Amos 2:8. But in Pr. the word seems to have the wider meaning punish. The old technical sense has been lost. for their uprightness is an impossible rendering. Either render to smite the noble is against justice, or read much less to smite the noble.