Proverbs 26

27. The first clause declares that we may have too much of a good thing, so that it becomes virtually an evil to us. As for the second; glory, i.e., an honorable name, is a good thing; but to seek after this as an object and with solicitude is “not good.” M. S.

28. The wise and virtuous man is one that has rule over his own spirit, maintains the government of himself and of his own appetites and passions, and does not suffer them to rebel against reason and conscience. He has the rule of his own thoughts, his desires, his inclinations, his resentments, and keeps them all in good order. The man who has not this rule over his own spirit, who when temptations to excess in eating or drinking are before him has no government of himself, when he is provoked breaks out into exorbitant passions, such a one is like a city that is broken down, and without walls; all that is good goes out and forsakes him, all that is evil breaks in upon him. H.

The great principle and foundation of all virtue is placed in this, that a man is able to deny himself his own desires, cross his own inclinations, and purely follow what reason directs as best, though the appetite lean the other way; as the strength of the body lies chiefly in being able to endure hardships, so also does that of the mind. Locke.—The habit of self-control is but the accumulation of continued acts of self-denial; it is but the repeated authority of the reason over the impulses, of the judgment over the inclinations, of the sense of duty over the desire. Anon.

1. As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, So honour is not seemly for a fool.

2. As the sparrow in her wandering, as the swallow in her flying, So the curse that is causeless lighteth not.

3. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, And a rod for the back of fools.

4. Answer not a fool according to his folly, Lest thou also be like unto him.

5. Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own conceit.

6. He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool Cutteth off his own feet, and drinketh in damage.

7. The legs of the lame hang loose: So is a parable in the mouth of fools.

8. As one that bindeth a stone in a sling, So is he that giveth honour to a fool.

9. As a thorn that goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, So is a parable in the mouth of fools.

10. As an archer that woundeth all,

So is he that hireth the fool and he that hireth them that pass by.

11. As a dog that returneth to his vomit, So is a fool that repeateth his folly.

12. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.

13. The sluggard saith, There is a lion in the way; A lion is in the streets.

14. As the door turneth upon its hinges, So doth the sluggard upon his bed.

15. The sluggard burieth his hand in the dish; It wearieth him to bring it again to his mouth.

16. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit Than seven men that can render a reason.

17. He that passeth by, and vexeth himself with strife belonging not to him, Is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.

18. As a madman who casteth firebrands, Arrows, and death;

19. So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, And saith, Am not I in sport?

20. For lack of wood the fire goeth out :

And where there is no whisperer, contention ceaseth.

21. As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire ;

So is a contentious man to inflame strife.

22. The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels,

And they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

23. Fervent lips and a wicked heart

Are like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross.

24. He that hateth dissembleth with his lips,

2. “THE birds swiftly vanish; and so does the causeless curse—i.e., it will not light,” This is the gist of the comparison. M. S.—Vague as the flight of the sparrow, aimless as the wheelings of the swallow, is the causeless curse. It will never reach its goal. Anon.

3. Fitness is here the one point in common. The horse needs the whip, the ass the bridle, and the fool’s back, for the same reason, the rod of correction. It is assumed that by reason of his folly the persuasions of wisdom and the law of kindness are unavailing, so that nothing remains but the rod. H. C.

4,5. Both are correct, with appropriate limitations. In the first case, one is not to answer a fool in a way that accords with his folly—i.e., by saying silly things as he does; for this would make one turn fool himself. In the second place, one should answer him as his folly deserves—i.e., with reproof, or (it may be) with a wise moderation; for otherwise he will indulge the conceit, that he himself is as wise as others. M. S.—The true sense of this pair of proverbs: Answer not the fool foolishly, according to the spirit of his folly, lest thou become like him. But answer a fool as his folly deserves, according to the desert of his folly, lest he be left to suppose that he has said a very smart thing and become even more wise in his own conceit than ever before. Rebuke him; expose his folly to his own eyes; but beware of being drawn by sympathy into the same strain of foolish talking.

8. The pith of the proverb: Honor will not stick to a fool. It can no more abide with him than a smooth stone will abide in the sling when the hurling impulse is felt tearing it away.

12. Self-conceit is a more fatal bar to knowledge and true wisdom than ignorance or even stupidity. He who thinks himself wise enough already scorns all diligent application and real study. H. C.—There is no greater evidence of a man’s weakness than self-conceit, and it is

But he layeth up deceit within him:

25. When he speaketh fair, believe him not;

For there are seven abominations in his heart:

26. Though his hatred cover itself with guile,

His wickedness shall be openly shewed before the congregation.

27. Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein:

And he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon him.

28. A lying tongue hateth those whom it hath wounded;

And a flattering mouth worketh ruin.

well said of such “there is more hope of a fool than of him.” The more a man knows, the more fully he is conscious of his deficiencies, and the more humble and unassuming he will be. Men who seek for recognition are seldom worthy of it, while men whose worth entitles them to recognition have no need to seek for it.

“He that humbleth himself shall be exalted,” but “the lofty look of man shall be brought low.” Meth. Recorder.

It was prettily devised of Æsop, the fly set upon the axletree of the chariot-wheel, and said, “What a dust do I raise!” So are there some vain persons that, whatsoever goeth alone, or moveth upon greater means, if they have never so little hand in it, think it is they who carry it. They who write books on the contempt of glory inscribe their own name on the titles. Vainglorious men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts. Bacon.

The conceited man has only one ardent admirer—that is himself. No trait of character conveys a more unfavorable impression; none so quickly excites disgust; none provokes such constant and universal ridicule. Conceit is a mark of real smallness of soul. It is a phase of selfishness. It means small thoughts of the world and of other men; low ideals of character and attainment; weak and narrow conceptions of duty. It is the mark of a self-centred life; and the life which makes self the centre is as much smaller than the true life as the idea which made our earth the centre of the universe was beneath the true conception of the solar system. “Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works,” said Shakespeare. The men who have been servants of humanity—the great reformers and philanthropists—have been freest from conceit. They were great in humility; for humility, rightly understood, is essential greatness. Humility is the quality which leads men to serve others; conceit, the quality which leads them to serve themselves. S. S. T.

Than self-conceit nothing operates more powerfully in perverting the judgment, that guiding faculty by whose ministry alone we may render all the others serviceable. The vain man can never think justly of things nor equitably of persons, where his vanity has any or the least concern, which it seldom fails to have in most cases occurring for his decision. It throws a bar against improvement by the persuasion of a sufficiency already attained; it shuts his ear against information and his heart against conviction, lest he should appear ever to have been wanting in knowledge, or liable to mistake. It prevents all self-examination, for fear he should find something that might wound his vanity; it renders him indocible of that most useful science of ignorance; for he knows of none within him to be the object of such science. It falsifies the weights and measures of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, laudable and blamable, making him judge of them according to what he has or does, or believes, himself exaggerating his own and depreciating whatever belongs to another. It damps his industry by the disdain of little acquisitions as unworthy his notice. The conceited will stoop to nothing that is not grand, extraordinary; he must preside at the helm, or convert heathen nations, or draw multitudes at his heels, or knock down all opposers with demonstration; and if by scorning to do anything common he undertakes nothing feasible, he solaces himself with reflecting what mighty wonders he should have performed if such or such perverse incidents had not fallen in the way. Anon.

Of all trees, God hath chosen the vine, a low plant that creeps upon the helpful wall; of all beasts, the soft and patient lamb; of all fowls, the mild and guileless dove. When God appeared to Moses, it was not in the lofty cedar, nor in the sturdy oak, nor in the spreading palm; but in a bush, a humble, slender, abject shrub; as if He would by these elections check the conceited arrogance of man. Anon.

13. The slothful man dreads the way, the streets, the place where work is to be done, and a journey to be gone; he hates business, hates everything that requires care and labor. He pretends to dread a lion in the way. When he is pressed to be diligent, either in his worldly affairs or in the business of religion, this is his excuse (and a sorry excuse it is, as bad as none), There is a lion in the way, some insuperable difficulty or danger which he cannot pretend to grapple with. Lions frequent woods and deserts; and in the daytime, when man has business to do, they are in their dens. But the sluggard pretends to fancy a lion in the streets, whereas the lion is only in his own fancy, nor is he so fierce as he is painted. It is a foolish thing to frighten ourselves from real duties by fancied difficulties. H.

“There is a lion in the way.” Yes, and not one but many lions: the lion of the world’s opposition and hatred; the lion of our own fleshly nature, of our own physical and mental passions; our “adversary the devil.” These lions—the world, the flesh, and the devil—for all their seeming strength and ferocity and the passion in their throats, prove but cowardly beasts after all; and though Timorous and Mistrust may not find it out, they are but chained lions, and we stand beyond their spring. But the slothful man not only says, “There is a lion in the way,” but adds, “I shall be slain in the streets,” and then in a reproachful and injured tone, “You well know that many have been so slain.” Yes, it is quite true; they have been so slain; but to them, as to their Lord, through death and after death, if not in life, have come the glory and the victory. Farrar.

14. As the door, with no self-moving power, turns not itself but only is turned, so the slothful may be sarcastically represented as too lazy (of his own motion) even to turn over in his bed. Or perhaps the point of the comparison may be that as the door can have no other motion than that of turning to and fro upon its hinges, so the sluggard never moves beyond rolling from side to side upon his bed—never rises to any active, useful labor. These proverbs spare not the sluggard! H. C.

16. The object of a liberal education is to develop the whole mental system of man—to make his speculative inferences coincide with his practical convictions—to enable him to render a reason for the belief that is in him, and not to leave him in the condition of Solomon’s sluggard, who is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. Whewell.

19. He that sins in jest must repent in earnest, or his sin will be his ruin. Truth is too valuable a thing to be sold for a jest, and so is the reputation of our neighbor. By lying and slandering in jest men learn themselves and teach others to lie and slander in earnest; a false report raised in mirth may be spread in malice; and if a man may tell a lie to make himself merry, why not to make himself rich, and so truth quite perishes, and men teach their tongues to tell lies (Jer. 9:5). If men would consider that a lie comes from the devil and brings to hell-fire, surely that would spoil the sport of it; it is casting arrows and death to themselves.

20-22. Contention is as a fire, it heats the spirit, burns up all that is good, and puts families and societies into a flame. Here we are told how that fire is commonly kindled and kept burning, that we may avoid the occasions of strife, and so prevent the mischievous consequences of it. If then we would keep the peace, we must not give ear to talebearers, for they feed the fire of contention with fuel; nay, they spread it with combustible matter; the tales they carry are fire-balls; they who by insinuating base characters, revealing secrets, and misrepresenting words and actions, do what they can to make relations, friends and neighbors jealous one of another, alienate them one from another and sow discord among them, are to be banished out of families and all societies, and then strife will as surely cease as the fire will go out when it has no fuel; the contenders will better understand one another and come to a better temper; old stories will soon be forgotten when there are no new ones told to keep up the remembrance of them, and both sides will see how they have been imposed upon by a common enemy. Whisperers and backbiters are incendiaries not to be suffered. To illustrate this, he repeats (v. 22) what he had said before (18:8), that the words of a talebearer are as wounds, deep and dangerous wounds, wounds in the vitals; they wound the reputation of him who is belied, and perhaps the wound proves incurable, and even the plaster of a recantation

(which yet can seldom be obtained) may not prove wide enough for it; they wound the love and charity which he to whom they are spoken ought to have for his neighbor, and give a fatal stab to friendship and Christian fellowship. We must therefore not only not be talebearers ourselves at any time, nor ever do any ill offices, but we should not give the least countenance to those that are. H.

27. This implies that he digs a pit for others to fall into, and rolls a stone up the hill to hurl it down upon other men’s heads. His malicious labor reacts with curses upon himself. Haman thought to build a gallows for Mordecai; by God’s overruling hand it came to pass that he built it for his own neck. H. C.

28. There are two sorts of lies equally detestable: 1. A slandering lie, which avowedly hates those it is spoken of; a lying tongue hates those that are afflicted by it; it afflicts them by calumnies and reproaches because it hates them, and can thus smite them secretly where they are without defence; and it hates them because it has afflicted them, and made them its enemies. The mischief of this is open and obvious; it afflicts, it hates, and owns it, and everybody sees it. 2. A flattering lie, which secretly works the ruin of those it is spoken to. In the former, the mischief is plain, and men guard against it as well as they can, but in this it is little suspected, and men betray themselves by being credulous of their own praises and the compliments that are passed upon them. A wise man therefore will be more afraid of a flatterer that kisses and kills than of a slanderer that proclaims war. H.