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Chapter 27

Dictums about Every Circumstance[a]

Do not boast about tomorrow,
    for you can never be certain what today may bring.[b]
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
    let it come from the lips of someone else and not your own.
Stone is heavy and sand is a dead weight,
    but heavier than both is a fool’s provocation.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 27:1 Among these simple but striking proverbs, several evoke the cost of friendship (vv. 6-10), one in verse 13 places people on guard against surety for foreigners (see Prov 6:1-5; 20:16), and one in verse 15 brings together the pessimistic proposal about a nagging wife (see Prov 19:13).
  2. Proverbs 27:1 See Prov 16:9; Mt 6:34; Jas 4:13-16; see also Isa 56:12 and the words of the rich fool in Lk 12:19-20.