"Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor's house or he will become weary of you and hate you"
This is the second proverb which deals with limits that you must maintain or you will not be wise. These are small lessons but essential. The one in verse 16 is about limiting concentrated sweetness or what we would call dessert. Also, it is about not letting yourself just consume massive quantities of something just because it is available.
This second limiting proverb is about overstaying your welcome at another person's house. Everyone has habits and idiosyncrasies about one’s life that would annoy others if they were constantly exposed to it.
Benjamin Franklin – in Poor Richard's Almanac – said it this way: "Fish like people smell after three days."
This is just a little truth that should be tucked away and remembered if one should be in these circumstances. Leave when you will be missed instead of waiting until they can't wait to see you go.
weary
This is the Hebrew word sabea, which means to be sated, satisfied, full of. The idea is clearly that the person has had their full amount of you.
rarely
This is the Hebrew word yaqar, which means to be precious, prized, scarce. The idea is that you can control whether people want you to come by or whether they loathe that you might continue to stay.
One of the things that Solomon is implying is that if you spend enough time with others, then disagreements and differences will begin to surface.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz