Key Verse Spotlight
Proverbs 25:17 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he be weary of you, and hate you. "
Proverbs 25:17
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
15 By patience a ruler is persuaded. A soft tongue breaks the bone.
16 Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, lest you eat too much, and vomit it.
17 Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he be weary of you, and hate you.
18 A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.
19 Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a lame foot.
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Create Free AccountBible Guided Commentary
Here Solomon mentions another pleasure that we must not take too freely, the pleasure of visiting friends. We must guard against overindulging ourselves in one case, and against burdening our neighbor in the other.
It is a kind and proper thing to visit our neighbors now and then. We do it to show respect and care, to grow in friendship, and to enjoy the comfort and benefit of good conversation. Visiting can strengthen mutual affection when it is done with care.
But wisdom, as well as good manners, teaches us not to become a burden to our friends by visiting too often, staying too long, coming at mealtime, or meddling in the affairs of their household. When we do that, we make ourselves cheap, bothersome, and unwelcome. A neighbor who is pestered this way will grow tired of us and may come to dislike us, which ruins the very friendship we should have been building.
Too much familiarity often breeds contempt. A friend who leans too heavily on another friend can lose that friendship. How much better a friend is God than any human friend, because we do not need to keep away from his house, the throne of his grace (Proverbs 8:34). The more often we come to him, the better, and the more welcome we are.
From This Chapter
Proverbs 25:1
"These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out."
Proverbs 25:2
"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter."
Proverbs 25:3
"As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable."
Proverbs 25:4
"Take away the dross from the silver, and material comes out for the refiner."
Proverbs 25:5
"Take away the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established in righteousness."
Proverbs 25:6
"Don’t exalt yourself in the presence of the king, or claim a place among great men;"
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