Proverbs 27:10

10 Do not forsake your own friend or your father's friend, Nor go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity; Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.

Proverbs 27:10 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 27:10

Thine own friend, and thy father's friend forsake not
Who have been long tried and proved, and found faithful; these should be kept to and valued, and not new ones sought; which to do is oftentimes of bad consequence. Solomon valued his father's friend Hiram, and kept up friendship with him; but Rehoboam his son forsook the counsel of the old men his father's friends and counsellors, and followed the young mien his new friends, and thereby lost ten tribes at once. Jarchi interprets this of God, the friend of Israel and of their fathers, who is not to be forsaken, and is a friend that loves at all times; and to forsake him is to forsake the fountain of living waters;

neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity;
poverty and distress, to tell him thy case, expecting sympathy relief, and succour from him; but rather go to thy friend and father's friend, who sticks closer than a brother; see ( Proverbs 18:24 ) ;

[for] better is a neighbour [that is] near than a brother far off:
a neighbour that is a fast and faithful friend, and who is not only near as to place but as to affections is more serviceable and, useful to a man in time of distress than a brother though near in blood, yet as far off in place, so much more in affection, and from whom a man can promise nothing, and little is to be expected. The phrase in the preceding clause signifies a cloudy day, and such a day of distress through poverty is; in which sense it is used by Latin ^F5 writers, when a man is alone, and former friends care not to come nigh him.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 "Tempora si fuerunt nubila, solus eris", Ovid. Trist. 1. Eleg. 8.

Proverbs 27:10 In-Context

8 Like a bird that wanders from its nest Is a man who wanders from his place.

9 Ointment and perfume delight the heart, And the sweetness of a man's friend gives delight by hearty counsel.

10 Do not forsake your own friend or your father's friend, Nor go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity; Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.

11 My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, That I may answer him who reproaches me.

12 A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; The simple pass on and are punished.