Proverbs 25:17

Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Withdraw	הֹקַ֣ר ho.Kar	H3365	properly · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
foot	רַ֭גְלְךָ Rag.le.kha	H7272	a foot (as used in walking) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
neighbour’s	רֵעֶ֑ךָ re.'E.kha	H7453	an associate (more or less close) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
house	מִבֵּ֣ית mi.Beit	H1004	a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
weary	יִ֝שְׂבָּעֲךָ֗ yis.ba.'a.kha	H7646	to sate · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
hate	וּשְׂנֵאֶֽךָ u.se.ne.'E.kha	H8130	to hate (personally) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Genesis 19:2-3 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall ris…
Judges 19:18-21 And he said unto him, We are passing from Beth-lehem-judah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went to Beth-lehem-juda…
Romans 15:24 Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward b…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 25:17

Here he mentions another pleasure which we must not take too much of, that of visiting our friends, the former for fear of surfeiting ourselves, this for fear of surfeiting our neighbour. 1. It is a piece of civility to visit our neighbours sometimes, to show our respect to them and concern for them, and to cultivate and improve mutual acquaintance and love, and that we may have both the satisfaction and advantage of their conversation. 2. It is wisdom, as well as good manners, not to be troublesome to our friends in our visiting them, not to visit too often, nor stay too long, nor contrive to come at meal-time, nor make ourselves busy in the affairs of their families; hereby we make ourselv…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 25:16

A comparison, as a surfeit of honey produces physical disgust, so your company, however agreeable in moderation, may, if excessive, lead your friend to hate you.

John Gill on Proverbs 25:17

Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house,.... Not but that it is commendable to be neighbourly and friendly, or for one neighbour to visit another; but then it should not be very frequent; a man should not be always or often at his neighbour's house. So the words may be rendered, "make thy foot precious" or "rare at thy neighbour's house" (m); be seldom there; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee; or, "lest he be sated with thee" (n); filled with thy company to a loathing of it, as the stomach with eating too much honey, and so his friendship be turned into hatred. (m) "rarum fac", Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus, Michaelis, Cocceius; Heb. "praetiosum fac", Piscator. (n) "ne forte s…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 25:17

This proverb is of a kindred character to the foregoing. "If thy comrade eats honey," says an Arabic proverb quoted by Hitzig, "do not lick it all up." But the emblem of honey is not continued in this verse: Make rare thy foot in thy neighbour's house, Lest he be satiated with thee, and hate thee. To make one's foot rare or dear from a neighbour's house is equivalent to: to enter it seldom, and not too frequently; הוקר includes in itself the idea of keeping at a distance (Targ. כּלה רגלך; Symmachus, ὑπόστειλον; and another: φίμωσον πόδα σου), and מן has the sense of the Arab. 'an, and is not the comparative, as at Isa 13:12 : regard thy visit dearer than the house of a neighbour (Heidenh…

The Church Fathers

Withdraw your foot from your neighbor's house, etc. Although you find the conversation or visitation of any neighbor sweeter than honey, it is better, nevertheless, that by coming less often, you make him always love your coming, than that you either stay with him too long at one time or come to him so often that he gets tired of seeing you and seeks that you do not return.
— Bede, Commentary on Proverbs

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Honey — (1.) Heb. ya’ar, occurs only 1 Sam. 14:25, 27, 29; Cant. 5:1, where it denotes the honey of bees. Properly the word signifies a forest or copse, and refers to honey found in woods. (2.) Nopheth,…
Friendship · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Guest · Rules for the conduct of — Rules for the conduct of
Hatred · Saints should: Give no cause for — Saints should: Give no cause for

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Proverbs 25:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 25:17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 25:16

John Gill on Proverbs 25:17

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 25:17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 25:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 25:17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 25:16

John Gill on Proverbs 25:17

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 25:17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 25:16-17

Rashi on Proverbs 25:17