CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 26:2. The first clause of the verse should be, As the sparrow flitting, as the swallow flying, etc. Causeless, i.e., “undeserved”—i.e., Such a curse is but transient—it alights for the moment, but, like a bird, does not stay long. Miller and others, however, understand the comparison to carry an entirely opposite meaning. (See Suggestive Comments on the verse.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 26:2
THE CAUSELESS CURSE
A reference to the Critical Notes and the Suggestive Comments will show that different meanings are attached to this proverb.
I. Men often utter causeless curses. In whatever country of the world we travel, and among whatever society, we are liable to hear men pouring forth maledictions against their fellow-creatures. There are places and circles where such imprecations are never uttered, because a better spirit rules those who belong to them, but these are, alas! exceptions to a rule. Curses without cause are uttered by masters against servants, and by parents against children, and by men in every condition and relation in life—curses prompted by passion and falling from the lips of men who answer to the description of the Psalmist—whose “inward part is very wickedness,” and, as a consequence, whose “throat is an open sepulchre” spreading unhealthy and loathsome influences around. (Psalms 5:9.)
II. Such a curse is harmless to its victims. A curse which is undeserved has no sting; it is as powerless to injure as the bird that flits over the traveller’s head and soon disappears. Even if the creature attempted to harm the man it is too weak, but not weaker than the curse without cause. It may cast a passing shadow in its passage, but there is no substance in it—it consists of words without weight, and wishes that have no power to fulfil themselves.
III. But such a curse will fall upon him who uttered it. We know that every bird who casts a shadow over our path will presently settle down again—it will find its nest whence it started, and there take up its abode. And so every curse uttered without a cause will return upon the head of him who uttered it—upon him will come the same, or worse, ills than those he has called down upon another. “Cursing men,” says Trapp, “are cursed men.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
(This comment, it will be seen, rests on another interpretation of the verse.) The type is graceful. The “bird” is so little, and his flight and roaming about so graceful, that we never think of him as having an aim. And yet, the wildest sport upon the wing is continually directed, and obeys the mind of the humblest voyager in the heavens.” “Curses;” of all other things not aimless. “He doth not afflict willingly” (Lamentations 3:33). And so whether large or trivial; the one great curse, or its numerous army of descendants; none are without a purpose. In each gentle pulse upon the wind the twittering “swallow” has no more clear a meaning than these flying griefs, as they float fitfully toward them who are to bear them. This Hebrew has two meanings.… We have selected “to no purpose” here, because the preposition is ל, and not בּ. Had we selected “for no cause,” there would have emerged a beautiful sense. The meaning then, as birds do not make their appearance in the spring as apparitions, starting up ghost-like in the fields as they seem to, but have come long journeys, many of them in the night, and have reached us by honest flying, so the curse does not come without a cause. The meanings, as will be seen, are very different. One is, that the curse has a cause on our part; the other, that it has a reason on the part of our Creator. Now, both are true. Both are very expressive. Both have a fitness in the passage.… “To no purpose” yields the wider truth, and, moreover, is the bolder mystery. The curse had a subsistence earlier than we, and a “cause” later than it had a reason. It was pre-determined from the very beginning. And, therefore, ours is the bolder grasping of the cavil, and replies to the sinner more deeply.—Miller.
Powerless was Moab’s curse, though attempted to be strengthened with the divination of the wicked prophet. Goliath’s curse against David was scattered to the winds. What was David the worse for Shimei’s curse; or Jeremiah for the curse of his persecutors? Under this harmless shower of stones we turn from men to God, and are at peace. “Let them curse; but bless thou; when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.” (Psalms 109:28.)—Bridges.