proverb · Words worth keeping
If relatives help each other, what evil can harm them?
If relatives help each other, what evil can harm them?
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
Relatives helping each other asked to be beyond harm gives mutual support a strongly protective value. The saying celebrates care through an exaggerated question.
What the words are saying
A responsible reading does not guarantee invulnerability or assume all relatives are supportive. Help should respect consent and capacity, and care can come from people outside a family. Hardship despite support is not evidence that those affected failed to help enough.
Everyday example
A family offers feasible support while acknowledging a problem that remains outside its control.
When to use it
Use it to value mutual support without promising immunity.
What it does not mean
No protection from every harm or compulsory family involvement is established.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided wisdom reference (2014 AD)
Supplied reference B; unit 573; PDF page 53; collection label: Assyria/Ethiopia
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- Assyria/Ethiopia