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Like a bird wandering from its nest,
    so is one who wanders from home.
Oil and incense make the heart glad,
    and the sweetness of friends comes from their advice.[a]
10 Don’t desert your friend or a friend of your family;
    don’t go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes.
    Better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 27:9 Heb uncertain

Anyone wandering from his home
is like a bird wandering from its nest.(A)

Oil(B) and incense bring joy to the heart,
and the sweetness of a friend is better than self-counsel.[a]

10 Don’t abandon your friend or your father’s friend,(C)
and don’t go to your brother’s house
in your time of calamity;
better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 27:9 LXX reads heart, but the soul is torn up by affliction

As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.

Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel.

10 Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.

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