Proverbs 27:1
“Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Context
Opening chapter 27, this proverb sets a tone of humility about human limits before sayings on friendship, correction, and the uncertainty of riches.
What Does Proverbs 27:1 Mean?
Proverbs 27:1 warns against boasting about tomorrow, because no one knows what even a single day will bring. The verse confronts a deep human tendency: to speak of the future with confident certainty, as if our plans were guaranteed and the days ahead were ours to command. The proverb gently but firmly punctures that presumption.
The reasoning is simple and humbling: "thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." The future is genuinely hidden from us. A single day can bring unexpected blessing or sudden hardship, and we cannot see around the corner. This is not a counsel of anxiety or fatalism -- elsewhere Proverbs commends careful planning -- but a call to hold the future with humility rather than pride. To "boast" of tomorrow is to claim a knowledge and control we do not possess. The wise instead make their plans soberly, acknowledging their dependence on God, who alone holds the unknown days in His hand. This posture frees us from arrogance and also from despair: since we cannot control tomorrow, we are invited to do today's good faithfully and to entrust what we cannot see to the One who already knows it.
In the Original Language
The verb "boast" is "halal," to praise or boast oneself. "To morrow" is "machar," the coming day, and "bring forth" is "yalad," literally to give birth -- the day "births" what it will.
Cross References
“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
- James 4:14
“There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”
- Proverbs 19:21
“But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”
- Luke 12:20
Application
Make your plans humbly, holding the future loosely -- do today's good faithfully and entrust the unknown days to God rather than boasting of what is not yet yours.