Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 25:17
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and [so] hate thee.
17. Withdraw thy foot ] So Vulg., subtrahe pedem tuum. Lit. make rare thy foot. The R.V. adopts the marginal reading of A.V., Let thy foot be seldom in. , LXX.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Let thy foot be seldom in the house of thy friend, etc. Though thy visits were sweet as honey, he may soon learn to loathe them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 25:17-20
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbours house.
Bad neighbours
Here are four kinds.
I. The intrusive. It is pleasant to be visited by a neighbour whose interest is genuine. Two evils accrue to those neighbours whose visits are intrusive.
1. They become tiresome. There is nothing fresh about them.
2. They become disliked. The natural consequence of irksomeness. Be not too intimate with any. Livy remarks that the perfection of good behaviour is for a man to retain his dignity without intruding on the liberty of another. Another bad neighbour here indicated is–
II. The slanderous. A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.
1. A maul. This old English word, which is now obsolete, signifies a hammer or a club, an implement used in the rough warfare of fighting men in old times.
2. A sword. Another deadly implement, that by which millions of men have been cut down in all ages.
3. A sharp arrow. Another weapon of destruction. A slanderous neighbour is as mischievous as any or all of these murderous weapons. He knocks, he cuts, he pierces; he destroys you by his tongue. Not your body, but your plans, your prosperity, your reputation, your happiness. Another bad neighbour here indicated is–
III. The faithless. Confidence in an unfaithful man, in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.
1. That the unfaithful man fails. Like the broken tooth and the foot out of joint, he fails to fulfil what is required of him. Just when you want to eat, you find that the tooth is broken and useless; just when you rise to walk, you find that your foot is out of joint. Just so with the faithless man. All his old promises of friendship prove to be lies, nothing less.
2. The unfaithful man pains you. In the use of the broken tooth and the disjointed foot when you try them, there is not only disappointment, but torture. Such is the mental distress which is caused by the failure of confidence, in proportion to the degree in which you had cherished it. Especially is this felt in time of trouble, when help is so particularly needed. To trust and be deceived is at any time a bitter trial.
IV. The injudicious. As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart. When you are in trouble there are neighbours whose attempt to comfort you is as absurd and as ineffective as the taking away from a man his garment in cold weather, and as giving to a thirsty man vinegar upon nitre to drink.
1. The injudicious comforter is one who presents incongruous subjects. Sometimes he will talk on worldly subjects, subjects of gain, fashion, and amusement, when the distressed mind is sorely agitated with serious thoughts.
2. The injudicious comforter is one who presents proper subjects in an incongruous spirit. He talks of the right things, but talks of them with a spirit unsympathetic, sometimes undevout, canting, cold, and dogmatic. Such a mans comfort is indeed vinegar on nitre, conflicting, irritating, and painful. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. Withdraw thy foot] Another proverb will illustrate this: “Too much familiarity breeds contempt.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbours house, visit him not too frequently nor unseasonably, lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee, as men are apt to loathe those meats of which they surfeit, as was now observed, Pro 25:16.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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 satictur tui”, Schultens; so Montanus; “saturatus”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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; includes in itself the idea of keeping at a distance (Targ. ; Symmachus, ; and another: ), and 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 (Heidenheim). The proverb also is significant as to the relation of friend to friend, whose reciprocal love may be turned into hatred by too much intercourse and too great fondness. But is including a friend, any one with whom we stand in any kind of intercourse. “Let him who seeks to be of esteem,” says a German proverb, “come seldom;” and that may be said with reference to him whom his heart draws to another, and also to him who would be of use to another by drawing him out of the false way and guiding on the right path – a showing of esteem, a confirming of love by visiting, should not degenerate into forwardness which appears as burdensome servility, as indiscreet self-enjoyment; nor into a restless impetuosity, which seeks at once to gain by force that which one should allow gradually to ripen.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
17 Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee.
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 ourselves cheap, mean, and burdensome. Thy neighbour, who is thus plagued and haunted with thy visits, will be weary of thee and hate thee, and that will be the destruction of friendship which should have been the improvement of it. Post tres spe dies piscis vilescit et hospes–After the third day fish and company become distasteful. Familiarity breeds contempt. Nulli te facias nimis sodalem–Be not too intimate with any. He that sponges upon his friend loses him. How much better a friend then is God than any other friend; for we need not withdraw our foot from his house, the throne of his grace (ch. viii. 34); the oftener we come to him the better and the more welcome.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Visitation of Neighbors
Verse 17 urges that visits to a neighbor’s house be governed by good judgment and consideration for the neighbor and his family. Beware of too frequent or ill-timed visits that intrude upon privacy or meal-time. Avoid advice for the conduct of their affairs. Know when to leave and depart, 2Th 3:11; 1Ti 5:13; 1Pe 4:15.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 25:17. Withhold. Rather Make rare.
Pro. 25:18. A maul. An instrument or weapon shod with iron, probably a war-club.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 25:17
OBTRUSIVENESS
I. We may by indiscretion close a door which we have ourselves opened. There are many things which are pleasant and welcome occasionally, which become not only unwelcome, but annoying, if we have too much of them. We do not desire to hear the sweetest song every day and all the day longthat which is refreshing and delightful now and then becomes wearisome if constantly repeated. We must apply this rule to ourselves in relation to our fellow-men. While we rejoice to feel that there are those who love us so well as to desire our presence upon all occasions, we must remember that most of our acquaintances will not set so high a value upon us, and that to be seen too often where we should be welcome if seen but seldom, is by our own act to shut our neighbours door upon us.
II. Our neighbours objection to our constant visits may arise from no unkindly feeling. Men who have work to do in the world cannot give all their time, or much of it, to the entertainment of visitors. There are those who, living to no purpose themselves, forget that others feel themselves accountable to God for the use they make of their lives, and such idle people often sorely vex and hinder their busy neighbours by their thoughtless and unseasonable visits. The man who enters a house and takes from a diamond necklace one precious stone after another until he has taken the whole, is doubtless no friend, but a thief and a robber, and is punishable by the law of the land; but the man who enters his neighbours house and robs him of hour after hour, steals property which probably cannot be redeemed, or redeemed only by encroaching upon the hours which ought to be given to rest. So that such a thoughtless intruder steals not only his neighbours time, but indirectly his health and power to work. Surely such pests of society ought not to have the name of friend bestowed upon them, but deserve to be branded with a name more befitting their character, and more in accordance with their actions.
For Homiletics of Pro. 25:18, see on chap. Pro. 12:18, page 274.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
17. Withdraw thy foot Rather, withhold: literally, make it rare or precious: let your visits be so rare that they will be valued. “There may be some connexion intended between this and the preceding. Though thy visits may be as sweet as honey, thy friend may learn to loathe them if too often repeated.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee. A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint. As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart. If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.
The Apostle hath quoted these last verses with a peculiar reference to the blessed effects of grace in the heart. Rom 12:19-21 And what should a child of God, who hath tasted of the preciousness of Jesus, do to an enemy? Surely melt him down with coals of the fire of love, in recompensing good for evil. Is not Jesus here peculiarly pointed at? Did he not do all this, and ten thousand times more to us his enemies, when our souls were famished, and an everlasting unsatisfied state of thirst must have been endured, had not he quenched it? Precious, precious Jesus! thou didst indeed give us bread to eat, and water to drink, even the bread of life, and the water of life: yea, thine own body and blood! And how hath Jehovah rewarded thee with the felicity of having redeemed thy people?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 25:17 Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and [so] hate thee.
Ver. 17. Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house.] This is a honey that thou mayest surfeit on, therefore make thy foot precious, or rare (so the original a hath it) at thy neighbour’s house, by too oft frequenting whereof thou mayest become cheap, nay, burdensome. At first thou mayest be Oreach, as the Hebrew proverb hath it, i.e., welcome as a traveller that stays for a day. At length thou wilt be Toveach, a charge, a burden. And lastly, by long tarrying, thou shalt be Boreach, an outcast, hunted out of the house that thou hast so immodestly haunted. It is a very great fault among many, saith one, that when they have found a kind and sweet friend, they care not how they encumber him or abuse his courtesy. But, as we say in our common proverb, it is not good to take too much of a frank horse.
a Hebraei ponunt rarum pro caro, ut 1Sa 3:1 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
weary = full of.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s: or, Let thy foot be seldom in thy neighbour’s, Gen 19:2, Gen 19:3, Jdg 19:18-21
weary: Heb. full, Rom 15:24
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 25:17. Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbours house Visit him not too frequently nor unseasonably: do not, upon every light occasion, interrupt his weightier affairs, nor intrude upon him, and take up his time uninvited and unexpected. Lest he be weary of thee Lest, having too much of thy company, it grow not only troublesome, but loathsome to him, and his love turn into hatred of thee.