Proverbs 27

Proverbs 27:1

1. B OAST not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

When we are in jeopardy every hour, it were folly to presume on days to come; but what our hand findeth to do, especially in the concerns of our souls, we must do it with our might: this moment we can call our own, but it is uncertain whether the next belongs to time or eternity.

2. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.

Proverbs 27:2

Nothing is so disgusting as self-commendation; nothing makes a man appear so despicable in the eyes of his company. We must study to deserve praise, not court it; let our works speak, and that will be truly to our honour.

3. A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty: but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both. 4. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

v. 3, 4. Two great evils are here observed. Unbridled passion, and rooted envy; the former, dangerous as the fall of a heavy stone, or a load of sand, that threatens to crush us to death; yet the latter still more to be deraded. A sudden graft of passion we may avoid, but where envy reigns, we are never safe, and the opportunity will be continually sought to do as a mischief.

5. Open rebuke is better than secret love. 6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

v. 5, 6. That is a selfish regard which would, for fear of offending, suffer sin upon our brother; true friendship will dictate the faithful reproof, and every wise man will esteem it the best evidence of sincere affection; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful, their smiles are more to be feared than their frowns; and

Before Chaff 7.0. Chap. 7.0. Heb. The chambers. 1 Sam. xx. 3. 4. Mat. ix. 2. Heb. Misteth his own grociens. Jer. ix. 2. Mat. xx. 5. So healed is covered in forest. P. xii. 17. 18. 8. 15. 15. 8. 4. 5.

Proverbs 27:23

And when their professions are warmest, they are most deeply meditating some malicious stroke.

4. Heb. Towards make fear, if job is. 7.

5. The full soul + lotheth an honey-comb; but 4 to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

6. 7. Appetite makes the fealt; the sauce of hunger causes the dry craft of the poor to be more palatable, than any thing the pampered appetite feels, in all the provocatives to luxury.

7. As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.

8. 8. A rolling stone, they say, gathers no moss; an unsettled mind, that is ever roving, flicks long to no business, nor stays long in any place; ever scheming, yet bringing nothing to perfection, is in the way to be undone; as the bird that hops from spray to spray, leaves her nest, exposes her young, and falls into the fowler’s snare.

9. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend + by hearty counsel.

10. Heb. By, to form the council of the soul.

11. 9. Sweet are the joys of real friendship, and precious the blessing of hearty counsel as rich perfume; rejoicing the heart, when unobst-ending our difficulties, we gain a resolution of our doubts, and direction in our emergencies; especially when, as the word signifies, it relates to counsel of the soul, to the promoting our eternal interests, and assuring us in our spiritual distress.

12. Thine own friend and thy father’s friend forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near, than a brother far off.

13. 10. When we profess friendship, we must approve our own fidelity, and not be changeable in our regards; and our father’s friend, proved by long experiences, merits our genuine confidence. When a day of calamity, of poverty, or affliction comes, we shall find such a neighbour slick father than a brother, and receive often that relief and cordial affection from them, which our own kindred are backward to shew.

14. My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me.

15. 11. Gracious children are an honour to their parents, do credit to their education, and silence the reproaches of those, who would be glad to impute any miscarriages in the son, to the father’s ill conduct, or neglect; or who blamed that strictures of restraint, which now, by experience, is proved the greatest blessing.

16. Chap. xvii. 3.

17. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

18. 12. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself, shunt the temptation which would draw him into sin, and knowing the dreadful consequences of it, prudently declines the path of ruin, however enslaving; but the simple pass on, and are punished, thoughtless, rush into the snare; benifless, advance to the precipice of ruin, and never think of the danger, till sudden destruction cometh upon them.

19. Band xvii. 14. Chap. xx. 16.

20. Take his garment that is sorely for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

21. 13. When a man by his folly, or abandoned conduct, is taking the unavoidable steps to ruin himself, it were imprudent to lend him a farthing, without a sufficient pledge, to secure ourselves, as we can otherwise never expect to be reimbursed, chap. xx. 16.

22. He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.

23. 14. A sycophant is a detestable character; pretending friendship, loud and extravagant in his commendations, and early in his adulations, fearful least any should supplant him; he will be counted accursed of God, and be abhorred of the wise; and, instead of rendering an acceptable service to his pretended friend, he will do him the greatest prejudice, by provoking the envy of others; or worse, putting him up in pride, and flattering him to his destruction. See Acts xii. 22, 23.

24. Chap. xix. 13.

25. A continual dropping in a very rainy day, and a contentious woman are alike. 16. Whosoever hideth her, hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand which bewrayeth itself.

Vol. I.

6. 15. 16. From the wrath, or clamour of others, we can fly for shelter, as from a hasty shower; but from the perpetual dropping of a contentious woman’s tongue, there is no covering: wretched is the man with such a wife. To affect to restrain her, is as foothold as attempting to bind up the raging winds, and to conceal her shame from others, is impracticable; as the ointment held in the hand sends forth its perfume, and the closer pressed, the more heated, the stronger its snout; thus resistance makes her often rage the more, and in spite of every effort to conceal it, she will be wry her own shame.

7. Iron sharpeneth iron, so 1 a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

8. 17. Man is made social; and the greatest blessings, or the greatest mischiefs flow from this disposition, according to the company we elude. The society of the wise and gracious quickens, enlivens, and cheers the heart, to walk in the good ways of God, whilst companions in iniquity sharpen each other for mischief.

9. Whoso keepeth the fig-tree, shall eat the fruit thereof: so 2 he that waiteth on his matter shall be honoured.

10. 18. Though our station be mean, and our work laborious, diligence and fidelity will bring their own reward with them. They who dig and prune the fig-tree, shall eat of its fruit, and the trusty servant shall be honoured, preferred, and rewarded of his matter; and better shall, be graciously regarded by that greater matter in heaven, with whom there is no respect of persons.

11. As in water face answereth to face: so the heart of man to man.

12. 19. As we are all one man’s children, the corrupted offspring of a corrupted parent, we have each the same strong traces of his fallen image; and whatever difference constipation, education, situation, and circumstances may make in our conduct, the heart is the same in all, deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, as the reflection of the features in the glass exactly corresponds with the real face. And in renewed men, the case is exactly parallel; they partake of the same divine nature, their experience in general correspond; and looking into the same glass of gospel-grase, where they behold the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image, by the spirit of the Lord. Cor. iii. 18.

13. Hell and destruction are + never full; so 7 the eyes of man are never satisfied.

14. 20. Our corrupt appetites are inflatable. The more indulged they are, the more craving: like the grave and hell, they are never full; but still are crying, give, give, and nothing can ever satisfy the vast desires of an immortal soul, but the fulness of God.

15. At the sinning-pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.

16. 21. A man is proved to be wise or foolish, wicked or gracious, according to the persons from whom his praise cometh; as like loves like: or the sinne is, praise, like the sinning-pot, will try a man’s spirit; if he is fond of it, and proud, and conceited upon it, then he appears reprobate silver; if ready, with genuine modesty, to disclaim the commendation, humbled under it, as sensible of his unworthiness, and made more careful to avoid every thing that would forfeit men’s good opinion, then is this a gracious testimony of a right spirit within him.

17. Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestil, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

18. 22. If the grace of God does not change a man’s heart, the severest corrections will be ineffectual. Were a sinner even plunged into the belly of hell, and brought back to earth again, it would not cure one of his evil tempers; so desperately corrupt, and fully set on evil, in the natural heart.

19. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and + look well to thy herds. 24. For 1 riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure; so every generation? 25. The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered. 26. The lambs are for thy chanting, and the goats are the price of the field. 27. And thou shalt have goats milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy houshold, and for maintenance for thy maidens.

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