Proverbs 27

¹ Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

² Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.

³ stone is heavy, and sand is weighty, but a fool's provocation is heavier than both.

⁴ Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming; but who can stand before jealousy?

⁵ Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

⁶ Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

⁷ He who is sated loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.

⁸ Like a bird that strays from its nest, is a man who strays from his home.

⁹ Oil and perfume make the heart glad, but the soul is torn by trouble.

¹⁰ Your friend, and your father's friend, do not forsake; and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.

¹¹ Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him who reproaches me.

¹² A prudent man sees danger and hides himself; but the simple go on, and suffer for it.

¹³ Take a man's garment when he has given surety for a stranger, and hold him in pledge when he gives surety for foreigners.

¹⁴ He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.

¹⁵ A continual dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike;

¹⁶ to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in his right hand.

¹⁷ Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

¹⁸ He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who guards his master will be honored.

¹⁹ As in water face answers to face, so the mind of man reflects the man.

²⁰ Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.

²¹ The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is judged by his praise.

²² Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him.

²³ Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds;

²⁴ for riches do not last for ever; and does a crown endure to all generations?

²⁵ When the grass is gone, and the new growth appears, and the herbage of the mountains is gathered,

²⁶ the lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field;

²⁷ there will be enough goats' milk for your food, for the food of your household and maintenance for your maidens.