Proverbs 26:2

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying,.... As a bird, particularly the sparrow, as the word (h) is sometimes rendered, leaves its nest and wanders from it; and flies here and there, and

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

By wandering from place to place; by its perpetual restlessness it secures itself from the fowler, that he cannot shoot at it, nor spread his net over it. Shall not come, to wit, upon the innocent person, but he shall escape from it like a bird, &c.

Proverbs 26:2 As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.Ver. 2. As the bird by wandering, and the swallow,] i.e., As these may fly where they will, and nobody cares, or is the worse; so here. And as birds tired with much wandering, and not finding where to rest, return again to their nest, after that they have beat the air with weary wing; so the causeless curse returns to the author. Cursing men are cursed men. So the curse causeless shall not come.] What was David the worse for Shimei’ s rash railings? Or Jeremiah for all the people’ s cursings of him? Or the Christian churches for the Jews cursing them in their daily prayers, with a Maledic, Domine, Nazaraeis? or the reformed churches for the Pope’ s excommunications and execrations with bell, book, and candle? The Pope is like a wasp, no sooner angry but out comes a sting; which being out, is like a fool’ s dagger, rattling and snapping, without an edge. Sit ergo Gallus in nomine diabolorum; The devil take the French, said Pope Julius II, as he was sitting by the fire and saying his prayers, upon news of his forces defeated by the French at the battle of Ravenna. Was not this that very mouth that "speaketh great things and blasphemies?" And - as qualis herus talis servus, like master, like man - a certain cardinal, entering with a great deal of pomp into Paris, when the people were more than ordinarily earnest with him for his fatherly benediction: Quandoquidem, said he, hic populus vult decipi, decipiatur in nomine diaboli: Forasmuch as this people will be fooled, let them be fooled in the devil’ s name. And another cardinal, when at a diet held at Augsburg, Anno Dom. 1559, the Prince Elector’ s ambassador was (in his master’ s name) present at mass, but would not, as the rest did, kiss the consecrated charger; the cardinal, I say, that sung mass being displeased thereat, cried out, Si non vis benedictionem, habeas tibi maledictionem in aeternum: If thou wilt not have the blessing, thou shalt have God’ s curse and mine for ever. "Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy servants rejoice." Annul. Gallic. Bucholcer.

(2) As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying.—Rather, As the bird (any small one, especially the sparrow) is made for wandering, and the swallow for flying (where it pleases), so the curse causeless (i.e., spoken without reason) shall not come (reach its destination). The Hebrew reads in the margin “to him,” instead of “not,” in the sense that a causeless curse, though it passes out of sight like a bird in its flight, yet returns “to him” who uttered it—an idea expressed in more than one English proverb. (Comp. Psalms 109:17-18; Isaiah 55:11.)

Verse 2. As the bird] צפור tsippor is taken often for the sparrow; but means generally any small bird. As the sparrow flies about the house, and the swallow emigrates to strange countries; so an undeserved malediction may flutter about the neighbourhood for a season: but in a short time it will disappear as the bird of passage; and never take effect on the innocent person against whom it was pronounced.

2. bird] Rather, sparrow. The mention of a particular bird, the swallow, in the next clause makes it probable that a particular bird is intended here also. come] Rather, light. The whole proverb gains by the rendering of R.V.: As the sparrow in her wandering, as the swallow in her flying, So the curse that is causeless lighteth not. The reading, “shall come to him” (who invokes it), instead of “shall not come,” which involves the change of only a single letter in the Hebrew, mars the force and beauty of the comparison. It may perhaps have been suggested by the idea that the subject of this verse—he who invokes the curse—would be “the fool,” as in the group of Proverbs , vv1-12 here. Proverbs 26:3-12. The proverbs of this group have all of them, as has Proverbs 26:1 of the chapter, the “fool” for their subject.

i. e., “Vague as the flight of the sparrow, aimless as the wheelings of the swallow, is the causeless curse.

2. As the bird — Here meaning any small bird of passage which frequently removes from place to place. By wandering — Literally, removing. Swallow — Generally so construed, though sometimes rendered dove or wild pigeon.