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箴言 27:17
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- CharlesEncyclopedias:
- InternationalBible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Iron: 1 Samuel 13:20, 1 Samuel 13:21
so: Proverbs 27:9, Joshua 1:18, Joshua 2:24, 1 Samuel 11:9, 1 Samuel 11:10, 1 Samuel 23:16, 2 Samuel 10:11, 2 Samuel 10:12, Job 4:3, Job 4:4, Isaiah 35:3, Isaiah 35:4, 1 Thessalonians 3:3, 2 Timothy 1:8, 2 Timothy 1:12, 2 Timothy 2:3, 2 Timothy 2:9-13, Hebrews 10:24, James 1:2, 1 Peter 4:12, 1 Peter 4:13
Reciprocal: Job 16:5 - But I would Ecclesiastes 4:9 - are Luke 24:32 - Did John 11:29 - General
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Iron sharpeneth iron,.... A sword or knife made of iron is sharpened by it; so butchers sharpen their knives;
so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend; by conversation with him; thus learned men sharpen one another's minds, and excite each other to learned studies; Christians sharpen one another's graces, or stir up each other to the exercise of them, and the gifts which are bestowed on them, and to love and to good works. So Jarchi and Gersom understand it of the sharpening of men's minds to the learning of doctrine; but Aben Ezra, takes it in an ill sense, that as iron strikes iron and sharpens it, so a wrathful man irritates and provokes wrath in another. Some render the words, "as iron delighteth in iron, so a man rejoiceth the countenance of his friend", i: by his company and conversation.
i יחד "laetatur", a חדה "laetari; ferrum in ferro laetatur, et virum laetificant ora socii ejus", Gussetius, p. 242. "ferrum ferro hiluratur, et vir exhilarat vultum sodalis sui", Schultens.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The proverb expresses the gain of mutual counsel as found in clear, well-defined thoughts. Two minds, thus acting on each other, become more acute. This is better than to see in “sharpening” the idea of provoking, and the point of the maxim in the fact that the quarrels of those who have been friends are bitter in proportion to their previous intimacy.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Proverbs 27:17. Iron sharpeneth iron — As hard iron, viz., steel, will bring a knife to a better edge when it is properly whetted against it: so one friend may be the means of exciting another to reflect, dive deeply into, and illustrate a subject, without which whetting or excitement, this had never taken place. Had Horace seen this proverb in the Septuagint translation when he wrote to the Pisos?
Ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere quae ferrum valet, exors ipsa secandi.
HOR. ARS. POET., ver. 304.
"But let me sharpen others, as the hone
Gives edge to razors, though itself have none."
FRANCIS.