It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.
Parallel translations
- WEB It is not good to eat much honey; nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor.
- BSB It is not good to eat too much honey or to search out one’s own glory.
- NKJV It is not good to eat much honey; So to seek one’s own glory is not glory.
- NASB It is not good to eat much honey, Nor is it glory to search out one’s own glory.
- NLT It’s not good to eat too much honey, and it’s not good to seek honors for yourself.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Just as too much honey is bad, seeking your own glory is not honorable. Self-exaltation, like excess, harms rather than helps.
Overview
Returning to the honey image of verse 16, the proverb links overindulgence with the unseemly pursuit of personal honor. True greatness does not grasp at praise but is content in humility (Prov 27:2). This contrasts sharply with Christ, who sought the Father's glory rather than his own (John 8:50).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Prov 27:2Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.
- John 5:44How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?
- Phil 2:3Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
- Prov 25:16Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.
- 2 Cor 12:1It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
- 2 Cor 12:11I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 25:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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