Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 17:17
A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
17. a brother is born ] Or (making a friend the subject clauses) is born as a brother, R.V. marg. A friend love friend’s love always, but with the love of a born brother in adversity. So was it with Jonathan and David (1 Samuel 18-20.); but the proverb admits of the highest application. See Introd. p. 30.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Some take the proverb to describe (as in Pro 18:24) the friend that sticketh closer than a brother: and render: At all times, a friend loveth, but in adversity he is born (i. e., becomes) a brother.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 17:17
A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
The unrivalled Friend
Few men enjoy from others the highest and truest form of friendship. There is, however, a higher friendship among men of principle, among men of virtue. Where godliness builds her house, true friendship finds a rest. Take this text and refer it to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I. The endurance of the love of Jesus Christ. He loved before time began. He loved you when time began with you. Since that day this Friend has loved us at all times. Consider the reality of Christs love at all times. His love has never been a thing of mere words and pretensions. Consider the nature of the love of Christ, as accounting for its endurance and reality. His love sprang from the purest possible motives. Christs love was a wise love, not blind as ours often is. He loved us knowing exactly what we were whom He loved. His love is associated continually with an infinite degree of patience and pity. He is so constant in His love, because He sees us as what we are to be. He is described as born for adversity, the adversity of the fall, and of tribulation.
II. Refer the text to the Christian. You have found Jesus Christ to be a true brother and a blessed friend; now let the same be true of you. If Christ be such a friend to us, what manner of people ought we to be towards Him? We should be friends that love Christ at all times. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A brother born for adversity
I. Adversity is the common lot of brotherhood. It comes sooner or later to all of us. It is a necessity of our nature. It is a wise appointment of God.
II. The ties of brotherhood are formed for adversity. We are united in families for purposes of mutual succour.
III. adversity tends to sanctify the intercourse of the brotherhood. Some of the most valuable of our lessons are taught us in our intercourse with one another.
IV. In adversity we are led to know, in an especial manner, the presence of the elder brother with the brotherhood. Jesus became a brother in adversity. His sufferings and sorrows enabled Him to sympathise with us in all our struggles and troubles.
V. It is by adversity that the whole brotherhood are gathered at last into our Fathers house above. (Anon.)
Mens friendship and Christs
Friendship is no fiction; all history bears record to its reality. There are many relationships in this world dignified by the name of friendship which really do not deserve it, as, for example, acquaintanceship, the freedom to interchange visits of courtesy, and association in business. These pass for friendship; but they are only its shadows. The perfect friendship is a very exacting relation.
1. The first value of friendship is that it will give support in weakness, understanding amid evil reports, consolation in sorrow, and help in the bearing of burdens; and that is no friendship which breaks down under such demands. Trouble is a splendid thing for any man if it only sifts his friends; it saves him a deal of trouble in other ways. There is an admirable compensation about our existence.
2. The second service of a friend is that he is one to whom all our thoughts may be uttered, one to whom we may be absolutely sincere. Ordinarily, a man is only honest when he is alone; let another man come in, and hypocrisy begins. Our words are a kind of clothes to hide our real selves. But with a friend we are absolutely open; we do all our thinking aloud, we stand erect before him, and find in his mind a true picture of what we are. Such a friend is a masterpiece of nature.
3. A third service is that it affords us the possession of one soul to whom we may be tender without shame. See the tenderness between David and Jonathan, and between Achilles and Patroclus. When one man becomes dear to another they have both reached the goal of fortune. By a tender friendship the Divine part in us finds exercise.
4. The fourth service which friendship renders is that it helps us to know ourselves and to know God. When you enjoy friendship most it is in contrast to solitude, and you seek solitude again, in order to know what you have gained from your friend. You cannot reckon up a profit and loss account while you are in his company; you have to retire to your own souls communion in order to ascertain your gain and loss thereby. Thus you have a compensation for intercourse with another soul by introspection of your own. Further, as the power that keeps the atoms together in one body is of God, the tie between your friends heart and your own is of God, and you cannot let your consciousness of friendship deepen without deepening at the same time your consciousness of God. (H. H. Snell.)
Friendship in adversity
Love, while it remains essentially the same, appears tenfold more loving when its object has fallen from prosperity into poverty; as a lamp burning in daylight shines much more brightly in the darkness. Many will court you while you have much to give; when you need to receive, the number of your friends will be diminished, but their quality will be improved. Your misfortune, like a blast of wind upon the thrashed corn, will drive the chaff away, but the wheat will remain where it was. How very sweet sometimes is the human friendship that remains when sore adversity has sifted it! (W. Arnot, D. D.)
Friendship
The more we understand the world the better we comprehend the Bible. The Spirit that overshadowed its writers knew all the ins and outs of human hearts, all the mysteries of human guilt and grief.
I. The ideal of friendship. Every man cannot be a friend. Friendships cannot be willed, they must be made. They grow; they want resemblances. Earthly friendships have often some element of weakness in them. No man can know more of his brother without knowing the worst as well as the best of him. Friendship with Christ alone satisfies. Here is–
1. The test of friendship. At all times. True only of Christ.
2. The preciousness of friendship.
3. The future of friendship.
II. The ideal of brotherhood. A brother is born for adversity.
1. This is a unique fact.
2. It is a designed fact.
3. It is an adapted fact.
To be a true brother, Christ must take account of the world as it is, and what word is there more expressive of life than this, adverse things–things that turn against us! (W. M. Statham.)
Constancy in friendship
That is not true friendship which is not constant; it will be so if it be sincere and actuated by a good principle. Those that are fanciful and selfish in their friendship will love no longer than their humour is pleased and their interest served, and therefore their affections turn with the wind, and change with the weather. Swallow-friends, that fly to you in summer, but are gone in winter; such friends there is no loss of. But if the friendship be prudent, generous, and cordial, if I love my friend because he is wise, and virtuous, and good, so long as he continues so, though he fall into poverty and disgrace, still I shall love him. (Matthew Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. A friend loveth at all times] Equally in adversity as in prosperity. And a brother, according to the ties and interests of consanguinity, is born to support and comfort a brother in distress.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A friend, a sincere and hearty friend, loveth at all times, not only in prosperity, but also in adversity, when false friends forsake us.
A brother, who is so not only by name and blood, but by brotherly affection,
is born for adversity; was sent into the world for this among other ends, that he might comfort and relieve his brother in his adversity. So this proverb compareth a friend with a brother, and showeth that a friend doth that freely, and by choice, which a brother doth by the force and obligations of nature. But this last clause may be, and is by divers, otherwise rendered, and he (to wit, the friend) is born a brother (or, becomes or is made a brother, i.e. puts on brotherly affection, as if he had received a second birth, and was born his brother; such expressions being not unusual, both in Scripture and in other authors) in or against the time of adversity. So the sense is, He is a friend at all times, but in adversity he is more than all ordinary friend, even a brother.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. To the second of theseparallel clauses, there is an accession of meaning, that is, that abrother’s love is specially seen in adversity.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A friend loveth at all times,…. A true, hearty, faithful friend, loves in times of adversity as well as in times of prosperity: there are many that are friends to persons, while they are in affluent circumstances; but when there is a change in their condition, and they are stripped of all riches and substance; than their friends forsake them, and stand at a distance from them; as was the case of Job,
Job 19:14; it is a very rare thing to find a friend that is a constant lover, such an one as here described;
and a brother is born for adversity; for a time of adversity, as Jarchi: he is born into the world for this purpose; to sympathize with his brother in distress, to relieve him, comfort and support him; and if he does not do this, when it is in his power to do it, he does not answer the end of his being born into the world. The Jewish writers understand this as showing the difference between a friend and a brother: a cordial friend loves at all times, prosperous and adverse; but a “brother [loves when] adversity [is] born” s, or is, so Aben Ezra; he loves when he is forced to it; when the distress of his brother, who is his flesh and bone, as Gersom observes, obliges him to it: but this may be understood of the same person who is the friend; he is a brother, and acts the part of one in a time of adversity, for which he is born and brought into the world; it being so ordered by divine Providence, that a man should have a friend born against the time he stands in need of him t. To no one person can all this be applied with so much truth and exactness as to our Lord Jesus Christ; he is a “friend”, not of angels only, but of men; more especially of his church and people; of sinful men, of publicans and sinners; as appears by his calling them to repentance, by his receiving them, and by his coming into the world to save them: he “loves” them, and loves them constantly; he loved them before time; so early were they on his heart and in his book of life; so early was he the surety of them, and the covenant of grace made with him; and their persons and grace put into his hands, which he took the care of: he loved them in time, and before time began with them; thus they were preserved in him, when they fell in Adam; were redeemed by his precious blood, when as yet they were not in being, at least many of them: he loves them as soon as time begins with them, as soon as born; though impure by their first birth, transgressors from the womb, enemies and enmity itself unto him; he waits to be gracious to them, and sends his Gospel and his Spirit to find them out and call them: and he continues to love them after conversion; in times of backsliding; in times of desertion; in times of temptation, and in times of affliction: he loves them indeed to the end of time, and to all eternity; nor is there a moment of time to be fixed upon, in which he does not love them. And he is a “brother” to his people; through his incarnation, he is a partaker of the same flesh and blood with them; and through their adoption, they having one and the same Father; nor is he ashamed to own the relation; and he has all the freedom, affection, compassion, and condescension, of a brother in him: and now he is a brother “born”; see Isa 9:6; born of a woman, a virgin, at Bethlehem, in the fulness of time, for and on the behalf of his people; even “for adversity”; to bear and endure adversity himself, which he did, by coming into a state of meanness and poverty; through the reproaches and persecutions of men, the temptations of Satan, the ill usage of his own disciples, the desertion of his father, the strokes of justice, and the sufferings of death; also for the adversity of his people, to sympathize with them, bear them up under it, and deliver them out of it. The ancient Jews had a notion that this Scripture has some respect to the Messiah; for, to show that the Messiah, being God, would by his incarnation become a brother to men, they cite this passage of Scripture as a testimony of it u.
s “et fater diligit quando tribulatio nascitur”, Munster; so some in Vatablus. t “Nihil homini amico est opportuno amicus”, Plauti Epidicus, Act. 3. Sc. 3. v. 43. u Mechilta spud Galatin. Cathol. Ver. Arcan. l. 3. c. 28.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
17 A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
This intimates the strength of those bonds by which we are bound to each other and which we ought to be sensible of. 1. Friends must be constant to each other at all times. That is not true friendship which is not constant; it will be so if it be sincere, and actuated by a good principle. Those that are fanciful or selfish in their friendship will love no longer than their humour is pleased and their interest served, and therefore their affections turn with the wind and change with the weather. Swallow-friends, that fly to you in summer, but are gone in winter; such friends there is no loss of. But if the friendship be prudent, generous, and cordial, if I love my friend because he is wise, and virtuous, and good, as long as he continues so, though he fall into poverty and disgrace, still I shall love him. Christ is a friend that loves at all times (John xiii. 1) and we must so love him, Rom. viii. 35. 2. Relations must in a special manner be careful and tender of one another in affliction: A brother is born to succour a brother or sister in distress, to whom he is joined so closely by nature that he may the more sensibly feel from their burdens, and be the more strongly inclined and engaged, as it were by instinct, to help them. We must often consider what we were born for, not only as men, but as in such a station and relation. Who knows but we came into such a family for such a time as this? We do not answer the end of our relations if we do not do the duty of them. Some take it thus: A friend that loves at all times is born (that is, becomes) a brother in adversity, and is so to be valued.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
True Friendship
Verse 17 suggests that in time of trouble the need for friend and brother is apparent and those who are faithful to help are revealed by their actions, Pro 18:24; Rth 1:16; 1Sa 20:30-42; Act 9:26-27; Php_2:25-30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 17:17. Friend and brother are related the one as the climax of the other. The friend is developed into a brother by adversity. (Langes Commentary).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 17:17-18, and of CHAP. Pro. 18:24
TRUE FRIENDSHIP
I. A true friend loves under all conditions.
1. He loves in times of separation. The distance between our earth and the sun does not prevent the one from influencing the otherthere is a power in gravitation which can make itself felt even when the objects affected by it are thousands of miles apart. So true love is quite independent of spaceoceans may roll between the friends, yea, the very grave may separate them, and yet the gravitating force which first drew the heart of one man to another will make itself felt. It has been said that the dead and the absent have no friends, but this is a libel upon human nature. A friend loveth whether the object of his love is present or absent, and will, if needs be, defend his friends character when he is not present to speak for himself.
2. He loves even in times of temporary estrangement. Transitory differences are not incompatible with the most genuine friendship, and while human nature is in its present imperfect condition it will sometimes happen that one real and true friend will disappoint and grieve another. But if the real and true feeling is in the heart it will be as unshaken by these temporary disturbances as the root of the tree is by the storm-wind that moves its branches.
II. Friendship is especially precious in times of trial. True friends are not like the locust, which seeks only the green pastures and fruitful fields, and leaves them as soon as it has taken from them all that it could feed upon, but they are like the stars, the value of whose light is only really understood when all other lights are absent. When all is going well with a man he may underestimate the value of his friends regard; he may not really know how heartfelt it is; but when misfortune, or sickness, or bereavement overtake him, he realises that a brother is born for adversity.
III. There is a bond stronger than any tie of blood-relationship. We have abundant and melancholy proofs that the mere fact of being brothers according to the flesh does not make men one in heart. The first man who tasted death was murdered by his brother, and many sons of the same father since that day have been separated from each other by a hatred as deep and deadly as that which prompted Cain to murder Abel. In the family in which Solomon was a son there was one brother with the blood of another upon his head (2Sa. 13:28-30). Something stronger and deeper than the mere tie of blood is needed to make men one in heart. The most beautiful example of friendship upon record existed between the son of Saul and the shepherd of Bethlehem where there was no relationship according to the flesh, and where the heir-apparent to the throne loved as his own soul the youth who was to supplant him. There is no friendship so firm and enduring as that which is based upon doing the will of God (Mar. 3:35) no brotherhood so perfect and lasting as that which has its origin in a common discipleship to Him who is not ashamed to call them brethren (Heb. 2:11), and who is Himself the Friend above all others, whose love can span the distance between His throne in glory and the meanest hovel upon earth, and the greater distance between Divine perfection and human sinfulness, and who was in all things made like unto his brethren, that having Himself suffered being tempted, He might be able to succour them that are tempted (Heb. 2:17), and thus prove Himself to be pre-eminently the Brother born for adversity, and the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
IV. It is an evidence of great folly to treat men as bosom-friends before we know them. There are men who will trust in a comparative stranger to such an extent as to lend their credit and their good name to him without any reasonable security. Such a man Solomon here characterises as being void of understanding. It is a mark of a fool to enter into any engagement without deliberation, and in nothing does lack of wisdom more plainly manifest itself than in the formation of hasty friendships, especially if the friendship involves a man in any kind of suretyship. From lack of prudence in this matter many a man has been all his lifetime subject to bondage. It behoves all men in the matter of friendship to follow the advice of Polonius:
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.
ILLUSTRATION OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP
Damon was sentenced to die on a certain day, and sought permission of Dionysius of Syracuse to visit his family in the interim. It was granted on condition of securing a hostage for himself. Pythias heard of it, and volunteered to stand in his friends place. The king visited him in prison, and conversed with him about the motive of his conduct, affirming his disbelief in the influence of friendship. Pythias expressed his wish to die, that his friends honour might be vindicated. He prayed the gods to delay the return of Damon till after his own execution in his stead. The fatal day arrived. Dionysius sat on a moving throne drawn by six white horses. Pythias mounted the scaffold and thus addressed the spectators, My prayer is heard; the gods are propitious, for the winds have been contrary till yesterday. Damon could not come, he could not conquer impossibilities; he will be here to-morrow, and the blood that is shed to-day shall have ransomed the life of my friend. Could I erase from your bosoms every mean suspicion of the honour of Damon, I should go to my death as I should to my bridal. As he closed a voice in the distance cried, Stop the execution! and the cry was taken up and repeated by the whole assembly. A man rode up at full speed mounted the scaffold, and embraced Pythias crying, You are safe now, my beloved friend! I have now nothing but death to suffer, and am delivered from reproaches for having endangered a life so much dearer than my own. Pythias replied, Fatal haste, cruel impatience! What envious powers have wrought impossibilities in your favour! But I will not be wholly disappointed. Since I cannot die to save you, I will not survive you. The king was moved to tears, and, ascending the scaffold, cried, Live, live, ye incomparable pair! Ye have borne unquestionable testimony to the existence of virtue, and that virtue equally evinces the existence of a God to reward it. Live happy, live renowned, and oh! form me by your precepts, as ye have invited me by your example, to be worthy of the participation of so sacred a friendship.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 17:17. The Friend. We are to notice the article. It does not impair the proverb for its secular use. We have such an idiom: the friend, i.e., the true friend. Even a worldly friend, to be worth anything, must be for all times; and what is a brother born for, but for distress? But spiritually, the article is just in its place. There is but One Only Friend, and a Brother who would not have been born at all, but for the distress and straitness of His house.Miller.
Friendship contracted with the wicked decreases from hour to hour, like the early shadow of the morning; but friendship formed with the virtuous will increase like the shadow of evening, till the sun of life shall set.Herder.
Extremity distinguisheth friends. Worldly pleasures, like physicians, give us over, when once we lie a-dying; and yet the death-bed hath most need of comforts. Christ Jesus standeth by His in the pangs of death, and after death at the bar of judgment; not leaving them either in their bed or grave. I will use them, therefore, to my best advantage; not trust them. But for Thee, O my Lord, which in mercy and truth canst not fail me, whom I have found ever faithful and present in all extremities, kill me, yet will I trust in Thee.Bp. Hall.
A friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety; but He swells my joy and makes it double. For so two channels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets and make it fordable, and apt to drink up at the first revels of the Syrian star; but two torches do not divide, but increase the flame. And though my tears are the sooner dried up when they run on my friends cheek in furrows of compassion; yet when my flame has kindled his lamp, we unite the glories, and make them radiant, like the golden candlesticks that burn before the throne of God; because they shine by numbers, by unions, and confederations of light and joy.Jeremy Taylor.
When a man blind from his birth was asked what he thought the sun was like, he replied, Like friendship. He could not conceive of anything as more fitting as a similitude for what he had been taught to regard as the most glorious of material objects, and whose quickening and exhilarating influences he had rejoiced to feel.Morris.
A brother for adversity is one who will act the brother in a season of adversity. Of such an one it is said, he must or shall be born, possibly, he is born. I do not understand this last clause unless the assertion is, that none but such as are born brethren, i.e., kindred by blood, will cleave to us in distress. Yet this is true only in a qualified sense. But another shade of meaning may be assigned to the passage, which is, that such a man as a friend in adversity is yet to be born, i.e., none such are now to be found; thus making it substantially equivalent in sense to the expression: How few and rare are such faithful friends.Stuart.
As in the natural, so in the spiritual brotherhood, misery breeds unity. Ridley and Hooper, that when they were bishops, differed so much about ceremonies, could agree well enough, and be mutual comforts one to another when they were both prisoners. Esther concealed her kindred in hard times, but Gods people cannot; Moses must rescue his beaten brother out of the hand of the Egyptian, though he rescue his life by it.Trapp.
Man in his weakness needs a steady friend, and God in His wisdom has provided one in the constitution of nature. Not entrusting all to acquired friendship, He has given us some as a birthright inheritance. For the day of adversity a brother is born to many who would not have been able to win one. It is at once a glory to God in the highest, and a sweet solace to afflicted men, when a brother or a sister, under the secret and steady impulses of nature, bears and does for the distressed what no other friend, however loving, could be expected to bear or do. How foolish for themselves are those who lightly snap those bonds asunder, or touch them oft with the corrosive drops of contention! One who is born your brother is best fitted to be your friend in trouble, if unnatural strife has not rent asunder those whom their Maker intended to be one in spirit. There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He must be a fast friend indeed, for a brother, if natures affections have been cherished, lies close in, and keeps a steady hold. Oh, when hindering things are taken out of the way of Gods work, a brother lies very close to a brother. He who comes closer must be no common friend. It is the idea of a friendship more perfect, fitting more kindly into our necessities, and bearing more patiently with our weaknesses, than the instinctive love of a brother by birth. From Gods hand-work in nature a very tender and a very strong friendship proceeds: from His covenant of mercy comes a friendship tenderer and stronger still. Now, although the conception is embodied in the communion of saints, its full realisation is only found in the love wherewith Christ loves His own. The precious germ which Solomons words unfold, bore its ripened fruit only when He who is bone of our bone gave Himself the just for the unjust. Thus by a surer process than verbal criticism, we are conducted to the man Christ Jesus, as at once the Brother born for adversity, and the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. In the day of your deepest adversity even a born brother must let go his hold. That extremity is the opportunity of your best friend.Arnot.
Pro. 17:18. It is good to try him whom we intend for a bosom friend before we trust him; as men prove their vessels with water before they fill them with wine. Many complain of the treachery of their friends, and say, with Queen Elizabeth, that in trust they have found treason; but most of these have greatest cause, if all things be duly weighed, to complain of themselves for making no better choice.Swinnock.
Seeing he hath not understanding to keep himself from hurt, it were good if he had not power in his hand to do himself hurt. Surely such a fool may quickly wring his hands together in sorrow, who before did clap his hands in joy, and may strike himself in anger with the same hand, wherewith in the foolish kindness of surety he struck the hand of another. For often this over-kind part of a friend is the breaking of friendship if it bring no further mischief.Jermin.
The evil effects of strife and pride, which form the subject of Pro. 17:19, have been treated before. See on Pro. 17:14, and on chaps. Pro. 11:2, and Pro. 16:18. Some expositors attach a slight difference to the meaning of the latter clause. See below.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Sets high (exalteth) his gate; a figure that is probably misunderstood. It probably means belligerence. A moat over which issued armed bands, with banners and mounted spearmen, required high space to let them go forth. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, etc. The soul that fixes itself that way against the Almighty, ready to march out upon Him on any occasion of quarrel, seeks ruin.Miller.
The slothful man exposes himself to misery; but he waits for it till it comes upon him like a traveller. The aspiring man, that cannot be happy without a stately dwelling, and a splendid manner of living beyond what his estate will bear, seeks for destruction, and sends a coach and six to bring it to him.Lawson.
And he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction. Some take this for a comparison:As surely as he that exalteth his gate (enlarging it out of due proportion) seeketh destruction to his house, by thus weakening its structure,so surely does he that loveth strife generate transgression. The phrase exalteth his gate, however, instead of being thus understood literally, may, with more propriety, be interpreted of a mans ambitiously affecting a style of living beyond his incomedisproportionate to the amount of his means of maintaining it. The general character is described by one particular manifestation of itthe high style of the exterior of his mansion. The exalting of the gate applies to the entire style of his household establishmentnot to his dwelling merely, but to his equipage, his table, his servants, his dress, and everything else. He who does this seeks destruction: he courts his own downfall, as effectually as if it were his direct object to ruin himself. Matthew Henry, in his own quaint and pithy way, saysHe makes his gate so large, that his house and estate go out at it.Wardlaw.
There is none that loveth strife more than he that exalteth his gate, either the gate of his ears to hear the tales of others, and the praises of himself, or else the gates of his eyes overlooking others with scorn and disdain, and his own worth by many degrees, or else the gate of his mouth, which is properly the gate of man, with big and swelling words, with high and lofty terms which usually are the sparks that kindle contention. But what doth such an one do, but even seek for destruction, which at his lifted-up gate, findeth easy passage to run in upon him.Jermin.
For Homiletics on the subjects of Pro. 17:20-21, see on chapter Pro. 10:1; Pro. 10:13-14, etc., and on Pro. 17:24.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(17) A friend loveth at all times . . .Rather, The (true) friend loveth at all times, and (as) a brother is born for adversity.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. A friend brother The critics differ as to the sense of the latter part of this verse. One interpretation is: A brother, according to the ties and interests of consanguinity, is born to support and comfort a brother in distress, (so Clarke, Stuart, Conant, etc.;) that is, in distress a blood relation is in general more to be relied upon than any other friend. Another interpretation is: A true friend (the same as mentioned in a preceding clause) is as a born brother in adversity; that is, the true friend becomes a brother in the time of adversity. So, substantially, the Speaker’s Commentary, Zockler, and others. This last interpretation tacitly assumes that the “brother” is the natural friend in adversity, inasmuch as it advances the “friend” to the relation of brother, because of his kindness in distress. Miller says, “At all times the ‘friend’ loves, and a ‘brother’ is born for straitness;” and interprets in his allegorizing way thus: “The friend is God, the brother is Christ,” “A faithful friend is the medicine of life.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 17. A friend loveth at all times,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 17:17. A friend loveth at all times, &c. This may be rendered; A friend loveth at all times; but he is a brother in the day of adversity. A good friend on certain occasions is better, and will do more, than a brother or a parent. See chap. Pro 18:24. We may read, And becomes a brother in adversity.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 17:17 A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Ver. 17. A friend loveth at all times. ] Such a friend was Jonathan; Hushai the Archite; Ittai the Gittite, who stuck close to David when he was at his lowest point. But such faithful friends are in this age all for the most part gone in pilgrimage, as he a once said, and their return is uncertain. David met with others, besides those above mentioned, that would be the causes, but not the companions, of his calamity – that would fawn upon him in his flourish, but forsake him in his trouble. “My lovers and friends stand aloof,” &c. The ancients pictured Friendship in the shape of a fair young man, bare-headed, meanly appareled, having on the outside of his garment written, ‘To live and to die with you,’ and on his forehead, Summer and winter. His breast was open, so that his heart might be seen; and with his finger he pointed to his heart, where was written, Longe, prope – Far and near.
And a brother is born for adversity.
a Bishop Morton.
b Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, being wounded and overthrown by the Duke of Alencon at the battle of Agincourt, was rescued by his brother, King Henry V, who, bestriding him, delivered him from danger, &c. – Speed.
loveth at all times. Illustrations: Abraham (Gen 14:14. Compare Pro 13:11); Joseph (Gen 45:5; Gen 50:21); Moses (Exo 32:11-13. Deu 9:18, Deu 9:25-29. Compare Act 7:40); Jonathan (1Sa 20:33); Barzillai (2Sa 19:32); Ahikam (Jer 26:24); Ebed-melech (Jer 38:7); Paul (Phm 1:12, Phm 1:20); Barnabas (Act 9:27); Aristarchus (Act 19:29; Act 20:4; Act 27:2. Phm 1:24. Col 4:10); Luke (2Ti 4:11); Epaphroditus (Php 1:2, Php 1:26).
Pro 17:17
Pro 17:17
“A friend loveth at all times; And a brother is born for adversity.”
“A friend is friendly at all times; but a brother is born for adversity. “The meaning here is that in trouble one finds out what families are for, and you also find out who are your real friends. The next verse shows that a real friend may be imposed upon.
Pro 17:17. A friend is one who loves. A true friend loves at all times, even in times of adversities and reverses and health-failures. They are contrasted with fair-weather friends such as the Prodigal Son had (Luk 15:13-16; Luk 15:30). Ruth represents inseparable love (Rth 1:16). David and Jonathan also (1Sa 18:1; 1Sa 18:4; 2Sa 1:26). Brothers may live at a distance and not get to see each other very often, but times of adversity bring them together to help each other. Pro 18:24 speaks of the friend that is even closer to us than a brother.
Pro 18:24, Pro 19:7, Rth 1:16, 1Sa 18:3, 1Sa 19:2, 1Sa 20:17, 1Sa 23:16, 2Sa 1:26, 2Sa 9:1-13, Est 4:14, Joh 15:13, Joh 15:14, Heb 2:11
Reciprocal: Gen 14:14 – his brother Jdg 11:7 – Did not ye hate Rth 1:14 – but Ruth Rth 2:20 – hath not 2Sa 15:21 – surely 2Sa 16:17 – why wentest Job 2:11 – friends Job 6:14 – To him Psa 119:20 – at all times Pro 27:10 – better
Pro 17:17. A friend loveth at all times A sincere and hearty friend not only loves in prosperity, but also in adversity, when false friends forsake us; and a brother Who is so, not only by name and blood, but by brotherly affection; is born for adversity Was sent into the world for this among other ends, that he might comfort and relieve his brother in his adversity.
17:17 A friend loveth at all times, and a {h} brother is born for adversity.
(h) So that he is more than a friend, even a brother that helps in time of adversity.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes