Ostentation

Ostentation in Proverbs is two short sayings about boasting: a simile that ranks the false boaster with empty weather, and a flat command that praise should come from another mouth, not one's own.

The false boaster as empty weather

The first saying compares the man who boasts of gifts he never gave to clouds that promise rain and never deliver: "[As] clouds and wind without rain, [So is] he who boasts himself of his gifts falsely" (Prov 25:14). The frustration of the empty cloud is the figure for the empty claim.

Let another man praise you

The second saying lays down the rule directly: "Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips" (Prov 27:2). The first half ("another man / your own mouth") is doubled in the second ("a stranger / your own lips") — the same point in two parallel lines.