You have DEATH in your house and do bewail another's

Meaning & Analysis

A person is criticized for mourning a death in someone else's home while a death has occurred in their own, to which they are paying no attention.

Insights

Hypocrisy and Self-Awareness

The 'death in your house' symbolizes major personal flaws, crises, or tragedies. The proverb rebukes the hypocrisy of focusing on the lesser problems of others while ignoring one's own significant issues.

Misplaced Priorities

It illustrates the flawed human tendency to misdirect attention and energy toward external matters as a way to avoid confronting one's own pressing duties and sorrows.

Neglect of Responsibility

The proverb serves as a call to order, emphasizing the primary importance of personal accountability and tending to one's own responsibilities before intervening in the affairs of others.

Moral and Religious Parallel

This proverb resonates with the biblical principle of addressing one's own significant faults before criticizing others (the 'mote and the beam'), using the powerful metaphor of death to underscore the urgency and severity of neglecting one's own crises.

Psychological Deflection

Psychologically, the act of bewailing another's loss while ignoring one's own can be seen as a form of deflection or avoidance. It is often easier to engage with external tragedies than to confront painful, personal truths or responsibilities.

Contemporary Social Critique

In an era of global media, the proverb serves as a potent critique of 'outrage culture', where individuals may invest intense emotional energy into distant events while overlooking pressing issues within their own lives or immediate communities.

Rhetorical Devices

Metaphor

'Death in your house' serves as a stark metaphor for any grave personal problem, immediately conveying a sense of ultimate urgency and importance.

Antithesis

The proverb's structure hinges on the sharp contrast between 'your house' and 'another's', effectively highlighting the illogical and irresponsible nature of the behavior.

Direct Address

The use of the second-person 'You' makes the proverb a direct, confrontational accusation, forcing personal introspection from the listener.

hypocrisyprioritiesresponsibilityself-awarenessavoidanceneglect

Analyzed with gemini-2.5-pro on July 4, 2025

Transcription

Quotations

— 1640, HERB., no. 372

— 1659, N.R., p. 99

(and bewaylest thou anothers?).

— 1664, COD., p. 219

Related Proverbs

M559 MEN use him ill that has ill luck 90.4%F571 To take one FOOT out of the mire and put in the other 90.3%L431 LOOK high and fall low 89.9%P426 PLENTY makes dainty 89.8%F710 Love a FRIEND together with his fault 89.8%C883 A malcontented CUCKOLD has no wit 89.6%C220 Empty CHAMBERS make foolish maids 89.6%F764 To fret like a FROG under a harrow 89.6%A131 ALL for what will you give me 89.6%M151 Good to fetch a sick MAN sorrow or a dead man woe 89.6%P447 Where POCKETS are full men will borrow 89.5%P354 The one cannot PISS but the other must fart 89.4%M1281 Make MUCH of one, good men are scarce 89.3%D437 As low as DOG to bow 89.3%L51 Good LAND must not be left because of a bad landlord 89.2%W17 A white WALL is a fool's paper 89.1%D68 Every DAY is not holiday (Sunday) 89.1%N346 An old NOUGHT will never be aught 89.1%F324 That FISH will soon be caught that nibbles at every hook (bait) 89.1%C807 A sore CRAVER was never a good payer 89.0%

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