Proverbs 26

Proverbs 26:1

26:1 Snow is distinctly unseasonable in summer, and rain in harvest is injurious as well. It is equally out of place and injurious to honor fools. It is morally unfitting and only encourages them in their folly. 26:2 The sparrow and the swallow flit and dart in the air but never alight on us. In the same manner, an undeserved curse will never land on a person, no matter what superstition says. Balaam tried to curse Israel but couldn’t (Num_23:8; Deu_23:5). 26:3 Just as it is necessary to use a whip on a horse, and a bridle on a donkey, so sharp correction is the only language a fool seems to understand. “Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you” (Psa_32:9). 26:4, 5 These two verses present an apparent contradiction. The first says not to answer a fool, the second says to answer him. What is the explanation? The latter part of each verse holds the key. Do not answer a fool in such a manner that you become a fool in the process. Don’t lose your temper, or behave rudely, or speak unadvisedly. But answer a fool. Don’t let him off with his folly altogether. Reprove and rebuke him, as his folly deserves, so he will not be wise in his own eyes. 26:6 To send a message by the hand of a fool is to work against your own best interests. It’s like cutting off your own legs or drinking poison. The fool won’t deliver the message properly. He will only cause you grief. To cut off the feet means to render oneself helpless. 26:7 The legs of the lame man hang limp and useless. That’s the way it is with a proverb in the mouth of fools. It is useless to them because they don’t know when, where, or how to apply it. 26:8 You shouldn’t bind a stone in a sling; it should be free for release. It is just as absurd to give honor to a fool. A second possible meaning is that just as a stone is soon parted from a slingshot, so a fool will quickly prove himself unworthy of any honor that is bestowed upon him. 26:9 When a drunkard handles thorns, they are painful and dangerous to himself and others. So a parable in the mouth of a fool can be misapplied and distorted. He might use it to justify his folly and to draw false conclusions concerning others. 26:10 The Hebrew text of this verse is very obscure, as is seen by the variety of translations: “A master roughly worketh everyone: he both hireth the fool and hireth passers-by” (JND). “Like an archer who wounds everybody is he who hires a passing fool or drunkard” (RSV). “The law settles quarrels at last, yet silence the fool, and feud there shall be none” (Knox). “A master performs all things, but he who hires a fool hires a passer-by” (Berkeley). “Like an archer who wounds everyone, so is he who hires a fool or who hires those who pass by” (NASB). “An employee who hires any fool that comes along is only hurting everyone concerned” (TEV). “The great God who formed everything gives the fool his hire and the transgressor his wages” (NKJV). It is impossible to say which meaning is correct. 26:11 A dog is no more revolted by its own vomit than a fool by his folly; they both go back to that which is repulsive and disgusting. This verse is applied in 2Pe_2:22 to people who experience moral reformation but who are never truly born again. Eventually they revert to their old ways. 26:12 A conceited person is above correction or instruction or rebuke. It is hopeless to try to correct him. An ignorant fool can sometimes be helped by a beating, but the conceited man is impervious to advice. 26:13-16 Here is the lazy man again and the imaginary lion that prevents his going to work. He turns, like a door on its hinges, . . . on his bed. Now he lies on his back, now on his front. Back and forth he swings with plenty of motion but no progress toward getting up. Later when he is at the table, he dips his hand in the bowl but can’t muster up enough energy to lift the food to his mouth. Even something as pleasurable as eating is an exhausting effort. He is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a proper answer; that is, seven intelligent men, unanimous in their insistence that he is wrong, wouldn’t change his mind a fraction. 26:17 The passer-by who vexes himself or meddles in a quarrel that is none of his business is asking for trouble. It’s like grabbing a dog by the ears; you don’t dare hold on and you don’t dare let go. 26:18, 19 Like a madman who throws firebrands and deadly arrows is the man who deals treacherously with his neighbor and then, when the harm is done, says, “I was only kidding.” It is like excusing murder as a joke. This proverb could be applied to irresponsible courtship and engagement. 26:20, 21 Just as fuel feeds a fire, so gossip feeds trouble. Unless a troublemaker keeps adding aggravations and gossip and lies, strife will soon die out. Some years ago the following appeared in the Atlanta Journal: I am more deadly than the screaming shell of a howitzer. I win without killing. I tear down homes, break hearts, and wreck lives. I travel on the wings of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me. I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice, no mercy for the defenseless. My victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea, and often as innocent. I never forget and seldom forgive. My name is Gossip! 26:22 This is a repetition of Pro_18:8. Fallen human nature eats up gossip as if it were tasty trifles. 26:23-26 Fervent lips with a wicked heart are like earthenware covered with silver dross. A shining, silvery finish disguises the worthlessness and drabness of the earthenware pottery underneath. So lips burning with pretended love often cover a heart full of hatred. The pretended affection of Judas, the betrayer, illustrates the point. The chronic hater tries to hide his enmity with gracious words, at the same time storing up deceit within. Though he may speak graciously, you can’t trust him. He hides seven abominations in his heart, that is, he is full of evil and malice. Though his hatred may be hidden for the time by deceit, eventually his wickedness will be manifested before all. 26:27 Man’s evil recoils upon himself, just as Louis the Strong’s workmanship did. He was asked to make chains that would hold the most desperate prisoners during one of the early French wars. He tempered some very fine steel and made chains that were unparalleled for strength. Later Louis himself was found guilty of treason and sent to prison. He was heard to moan, “These are my own chains! If I had known I was forging them for myself, how differently I would have made them!” 26:28 This proverb castigates the slanderer and the flatterer. The first one hates his victims, the second works ruin on his.