CHAPTER 27

                ¹Do not boast about tomorrow,

                    for you know not what the day will bring forth.

                ²Let a stranger praise you and not your own mouth,

                    another, and not your own lips.

                ³The weight of a stone and the heft of sand—

                    the dolt’s anger is heavier than both.

                ⁴The cruelty of fury and anger’s rush—

                    but who can stand up to envy?

                ⁵Better open reproof

                    than hidden love.

                ⁶The wounds from a friend are faithful

                    but the kisses of a foe are profuse.

                ⁷A sated appetite disdains honeycomb

                    but to a hungry appetite all bitter is sweet.

                ⁸Like a bird wandering from its nest

                    is a man wandering from his place.

                ⁹Oil and incense gladden the heart,

                    and a friend’s sweetness more than inward counsel.

                ¹⁰Do not forsake your friend or your father’s friend

                    nor enter your brother’s house on the day of your ruin.

                Better a close neighbor

                    than a distant brother.

                ¹¹Get wisdom, my son, and gladden my heart,

                    that I may give back an answer to my insulter.

                ¹²The shrewd man saw evil and hid.

                    Dupes passed on and were punished.

                ¹³Take his garment, for he stood bond for another,

                    for an alien woman, take his pledge.

                ¹⁴Who greets his neighbor in a loud voice

                    first thing in the morning,

                          it is reckoned to him a curse.

                ¹⁵A maddening drip on a cloudy day

                    and a nagging wife are alike.

                ¹⁶Who conceals her conceals the wind,

                    and her name is called “right hand.”

                ¹⁷Iron together with iron,

                    and a man together with his friend.

                ¹⁸Who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit,

                    and who guards his master will be honored.

                ¹⁹Like water face to face

                    thus the heart of man to man.

                ²⁰Sheol and Perdition are not sated,

                    and the eyes of man are not sated.

                ²¹Smelter for silver and kiln for gold,

                    and a man according to his praise.

                ²²Though you grind down a dolt with a mortar,

                    in the pestle among the groats,

                          his folly will not swerve from him.

                ²³You must surely know the look of your flock,

                    put your mind on the herds.

                ²⁴For wealth is not forever

                    nor a crown for time to come.

                ²⁵The grass is gone, new grass appears,

                    the mountains’ grasses are gathered.

                ²⁶There are sheep for your clothing,

                    he-goats, the price of a field.

                ²⁷Enough goat’s milk for your food,

                    for the food of your house,

                          and viands for your young women.