Proverbs 26

Proverbs 26:1

Bede: Just as snow in summer, etc. This verse warns that the teaching honor should not be conferred on the unlearned. Snow in summer and rain in harvest represent the persecutions of the unbelievers at the time of the preaching of the gospel, which, when they perhaps more heavily pursue, impede the warmth of love in many and spoil the fruits of good work. Glory given to a fool is rightly compared to harvest because if the unlearned is given the chair of teaching, the church is equally harmed by the persecution of the unbelievers, which the disaster of the Arian tempest has proved to be very true. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 26:2

Apostolic Constitutions: “As birds and sparrows fly away, so the curse causeless shall not come upon any one.” And again [Solomon] says, “Those that bring reproaches are exceedingly foolish.” But as the bee, a creature as to its strength feeble, if it stings anyone, loses its sting and becomes a drone; in the same manner you also, whatsoever injustice you do to others, will bring it upon yourselves. . — CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES

Bede: For as a bird flying to lofty places, etc. Words are rightly compared to birds because they fly through the air sounding, from the mouth of the speaker to the ears of the listener; but they differ in this, that it can happen that a bird flying anywhere settles where no necessity or use is served to it. However, the words we speak do not disappear and vanish dispersed anywhere into the wind, but all return to their author, and either benefit the speaker if spoken well or burden them if spoken poorly, so that we are forced to account for every idle word on the day of judgment. How much more do curses oppress not only those maliciously aimed at the innocent but even those indiscriminately uttered by negligent customary practice against anyone. For indeed, the revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. VI). Not without reason does he say, a curse uttered in vain, for there is also a curse not uttered in vain, but released in just wrath of divine strictness against the impious; as that of blessed Peter against Simon Magus, Your money perish with you (Acts VIII); and those pronounced against apostates and heretics by ecclesiastical censure, anathema [anathemas]; about which the Lord says to the same Church, Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven (Matt. XVI, and XVIII). — Commentary on Proverbs

Nilus of Sinai: “As birds and sparrows fly away, so the curse causeless shall not come upon any one.” And again [Solomon] says, “Those that bring reproaches are exceedingly foolish.” But as the bee, a creature as to its strength feeble, if it stings anyone, loses its sting and becomes a drone; in the same manner you also, whatsoever injustice you do to others, will bring it upon yourselves. — CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 3:1.15

Proverbs 26:3

Ephrem the Syrian: The Gentiles praise Thee that Thy Word has become a mirror before them, that in it they might see death, secretly swallowing up their lives. But graven images were being adorned by their artificers; and by their adornments were disfiguring their adorners. But Thou didst draw them to Thy cross; and while the beauties of the body were disfigured upon it, the beauties of the mind shone forth upon it. Then, as for the Gentiles who used to go after gods which were no gods, He Who was God went after them, and by His words, as by a bridle, turned them from many gods to the One. This is that Mighty One, Whose preaching became a bridle in the jaws of the Gentiles, and led them away from idols to Him that sent Him. — HOMILY ON OUR LORD 5:1-2

Proverbs 26:4

Ambrose of Milan: Your flight is a good one if you do not answer the fool according to his folly. Your flight is good if you direct your footsteps away from the countenance of fools. Indeed, one swiftly goes astray with bad guides; but if you wish your flight to be a good one, remove your ways far from their words. — FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 9:56

Ambrose of Milan: [David] used not to answer the enemy that provoked him, the sinner that exasperated him. As he says elsewhere, “As though he were deaf he heard not them that speak vanity and imagine deceit, and as though he were dumb he opened not his mouth to them.” Again, in another place, it is said, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like to him.“The first duty then is to have due measure in our speech. In this way a sacrifice of praise is offered up to God. Thus a godly fear is shown when sacred Scriptures are read. Thus parents are honored. I know well that many speak because they know not how to keep silence. But it is not often that any one is silent when speaking does not profit him. A wise person, intending to speak, first carefully considers what he is to say and to whom he is to say it; also where and what time. — On the Duties of the Clergy 1.10.34-35

Bede: Do not answer a fool according to his foolishness, etc. Answer a fool according to his foolishness, lest he be wise in his own eyes. These should not be seen as mutually contradictory, not to answer a fool according to his foolishness, and to answer a fool according to his foolishness: for both correspond according to the diversity of times and persons, while the fool is also disregarded because he does not receive wisdom, and foolish pride is checked by another kind of foolishness, just as the Apostle also says, I have become a fool, you compelled me (II Cor. XII). — Commentary on Proverbs

Cyprian: I had treated you with contempt, Demetrian, as you railed with sacrilegious mouth against God, who is one and true, and frequently cried out with impious words, thinking it more fitting and better to ignore with silence the ignorance of a man in error than to provoke with speech the fury of a man in madness. And I did not do this without the authority of the divine teaching, since it is written, “Do not say anything in the ears of the foolish, lest when he hears he may mock your wise words,” and again, “Do not answer the foolish according to his folly, lest you become like him.” — Treatise V. An Address to Demetrianus 1

Macrina the Younger: It is more agreeable to remain silent on such questions and to consider their foolish and irreverent assumptions unworthy of a response, since the divine words forbid it, saying, “Answer not a fool according to his folly.” But the fool, according to the prophet, is “the one who says there is no God.” — ON THE SOUL AND THE RESURRECTION

Proverbs 26:7

Bede: Lame in his feet and drinking iniquity, etc. It may happen that any wise person sends a fool on a mission, not knowing that he is a fool; yet he does not lose the glory of his wisdom, since he believed in the good from the unknown, which he had heard. But he who knowingly sends a heretic to preach to the people is lame in his feet and drinks iniquity, because he has lost both the outward walk of good work and the inner sense, being drunk on foolishness. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 26:8

Bede: As he who casts a stone into the heap of Mercury, etc. He who grants the honor of teaching to the foolish, that is, to the heretic, sins no less than he who worships the gods and idols of the pagans in vain. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 26:9

Bede: Now the boards [of the tabernacle] were made out of acacia wood, that is, a thorny sort [of wood], and according to the Savior’s pronouncement thorns are the cares of this world, its pleasures, riches and false delights. But the pricks of sins may also not incongruously be compared with thorns, for it is written here that thorns grow in the hands of a drunkard, that is, sins in the works of a fool. Because the holy preachers are eager both to expurgate themselves from the pricks of vices and to strip away all the cares and delights of the world so that with a free mind they might be able to be expanded in the love of God and neighbor and to run far and wide to preach the word, it is therefore rightly said that the boards of the tabernacle were made out of acacia wood (that is, out of thorny [wood]), for they were indeed made of thorns, but thorns from which all the thorny barbs had been completely stripped away, so that they shone with a pure whiteness. — On the Tabernacle 2:5

Bede: As if a thorn should spring forth in the hand of a drunkard, etc. A thorn springs forth in the hand of a drunkard when, in his works, who serves carnal seductions, the pricks of sins arise. To these rightly is compared a parable which the foolish propose, for although the foolish may know how to utter wise words, they do not know how to avoid the pricks of sins by which they either lacerate themselves or their neighbor. For often indeed, the imprudent one, in saying good things, either secretly seeks his own praise from men or the censure of others. — Commentary on Proverbs

Origen of Alexandria: The sin of all people is not taken away by the Lamb if they neither grieve nor are tormented till it be taken away. For since thorns have not only been sown but have also taken deep root in the hands of everyone who has become drunk because of evil, and has lost sobriety, according to what is said in Proverbs, “Thorns grow in the hand of the drunkard.” So what must we say in addition regarding the extent of distress they produce in him who has received such plants into the body of his own soul? For he who has admitted evil into the depth of his own soul to such an extent that he has become thorn-producing earth has to be cut down by the living and effectual word of God which is more piercing than any two-edged sword and more capable of burning than any fire.That fire which discovers thorns, and which, because of its own divinity, will stop them and not in addition set the threshing floors or fields of grain on fire, will need to be sent to such a soul. — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF John 6:297-98

Proverbs 26:11

Bede: As a dog returns to his vomit, etc. When a dog vomits, he surely ejects the food that was weighing down his chest; but when he returns to his vomit, he is again burdened by what had relieved him; and those who lament their sins, surely confess and cast out the wickedness which was badly satisfying them and which was weighing down the innermost parts of their mind, which, after confession, they resume while they long for it. — Commentary on Proverbs

Caesarius of Arles: These, no doubt, are the things suffered by clerics, monks or virgins who are proud, disobedient and lukewarm. When at the beginning of their life they abandoned the ways of this world and with a fervent spirit fled to the service of holy religion, through the grace of God they were rid of all their sins. But afterwards, when they did not put forth zeal because of carelessness and sloth and were not filled with spiritual graces through the help of God, the vices which had departed found them empty and returned with many more and compelled them to return to their vomit. Then was fulfilled in them what is written, “As the dog that returns to his vomit becomes hateful, so is the sinner that returns to his sin.” — SERMON 237:3

Fructuosus of Braga: We have learned that in some less observant monasteries, men have entered and brought their capital with them and later, losing their religious fervor, have made great trouble in demanding their property. Returning to the world which they had left, as dogs return to their vomit, with the aid of their relatives they have extorted what they had brought with them to the monastery and have sought the support of secular judges. With the help of magistrates they have [thus] destroyed the monasteries, so that we see many innocent men ruined by a single sinner. — GENERAL RULE FOR MONASTERIES 18

John Chrysostom: Don’t you know that people so unconcerned about their own salvation and vacillating between attention to it and headlong course into the devil’s net are compared in sacred Scripture with dogs? It says, remember, “The person who turns away from his sin and then goes back to it is like a dog returning to its vomit.” — HOMILIES ON Genesis 6:2

Proverbs 26:12

Bede: Have you seen a man who thinks he is wise in his own eyes, etc. The Lord explaining this, says: For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (John IX). — Commentary on Proverbs

Gregory of Nazianzus: There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, a person wise in his own conceit; and a still greater evil is to charge with the instruction of others a person who is not even aware of his own ignorance. — IN DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT, ORATION 2:50

John Chrysostom: This is not a small fault either to consider oneself wise and to refer everything back to one’s own judgment.… Paul addresses this same reproach to the pagan philosophers: “Professing to be wise, they become fools.” This is the reason for their folly. The author of the Proverbs said on his part, “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” Again, it is Paul who gives this advice: “Do not be wise in your own opinion.” — COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 5:21

Proverbs 26:13

Bede: The sluggard says, A lion is in the way, etc. Many, when they hear words of exhortation, blame the devil, saying that they indeed wish to begin the path of righteousness, but are hindered by Satan so that they might not accomplish it; and thus, with such words of excuse, they always turn on the hinge of their own sloth like a door; proposing now to go out to work and now to return to rest, they never cease to lie in their own perversities. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 26:16

Bede: The sluggard thinks himself wiser, etc. He speaks of seven men delivering sentences, who, full of the sevenfold grace of the Spirit, have ministered to us the knowledge of holy Scripture. The fool thinks himself wiser than these because, often, some so turn aside their minds from performing what the Lord has commanded that they argue that not even all these things can be done or ought to be fulfilled by man. And as if wiser than those who have written the divine words, they claim that man cannot do what those, dictated by the Holy Spirit, have commanded man to do; indeed also what many men have been shown to have accomplished with the help of the grace of the same Spirit. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 26:17

Bede: As he who takes a dog by the ears, etc. The Apostle says, Do not strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers (II Tim. II). Therefore, whoever is simple-minded, and if the ear of one of the two who are quarreling is captured by his biting word, he quickly begins to bark like a dog and generate contentions; but the wise man avoids this altogether. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 26:22

Bede: The words of a whisperer are as simple, etc. He calls the whisperer an instigator of strife and double-tongued, who pretends to praise words and seeks to hear that from which he can sow discord. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 26:24

Fructuosus of Braga: If one of the brothers who agreed upon a common pact shall suddenly on one occasion only fall into altercation with another, he may, according to the gospel, ask and receive forgiveness. But if he refuses to mend his ways, and if the one against whom a wrong has been done has not succeeded in changing the other’s presumption after a first and second admonition, then he shall report it to the abbot, lest both he and his brother be endangered by this silence. As the prophet says, “He who hides his enmity maintains deceit.” — MONASTIC AGREEMENT 6

Proverbs 26:27

John Chrysostom: Such a thing is malice! it will give way to nothing, it looks to one thing only, and that is, to destroy the person against whom it plotteth. But what saith the Scripture? “Whoso diggeth a pit for his neighbor, shall fill into it himself.” Which was the case then. For they desired to kill Him, to stop, as they thought, His preaching; the result was the opposite. For the preaching flourishes by the grace of Christ, while all that was theirs is quenched and perished; they have lost their country, their freedom, their security, their worship, they have been deprived of all their prosperity, and are become slaves and captives.

Knowing then this, let us never plot against others, aware that by so doing we whet the sword against ourselves, and inflict upon ourselves the deeper wound. Hath any one grieved thee, and desireth thou to avenge thyself on him? Avenge not thyself; so shalt thou be able to be avenged; but if thou avenge thyself, thou art not avenged. Think not that this is a riddle, but a true saying. “How, and in what way?” Because if thou avenge not thyself on him, thou makest God his enemy; but if thou avenge thyself, no longer so. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.” — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF John 51