CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 26:3. To our English ideas, the whip and bridle are assigned respectively to the wrong animals, but it must be remembered that the Eastern ass is often quite as spirited an animal as the horse.
Proverbs 26:6. Drinketh damage, or “injury.” As in Job 21:20, the verb “drinketh” seems to express suffering in a large measure.
Proverbs 26:7. Are not equal. The Hebrew word, so rendered, is a very obscure one, and is rendered by Delitzsch, Gesenius, and others, “hang down.” Zöckler and Stuart give the sentence the imperative form, and read, “Take away the legs from the lame, and the proverb in the fool’s mouth.” Parable. This is the common word for proverb—the word that gives the title to the book. On its real meaning, see the Introduction.
Proverbs 26:8. Sling. Gesenius, Zöckler, and many other commentators, adopt the reading in the margin of the English version, and translate this word, which is very obscure, “a heap of stones.” Stuart, Ewald, Delitzsch, and others, retain the word “sling,” which is the reading of the Septuagint. Stuart thus explains the verse, “It would be absurd to bind a stone in a sling, and then expect it to do execution. Equally so is it to bestow honour on a fool, and expect any good consequences from it.” If the first rendering is adopted, the word stone must be understood to refer to a precious stone.
Proverbs 26:9. A thorn. This is generally understood to mean a thorny stick or staff, which is a mischievous weapon in the hands of a drunkard.
Proverbs 26:10. This verse is very difficult and obscure, and has many and entirely different renderings. Luther, Elster, and others, translate the subject of the first clause, “A master, an able man, formeth all aright,—or all himself.” Delitzsch, Umbreit, and Hitzig, read, “Much produceth all.” The French version is in substance the same as our English marginal rendering. Perhaps the greater number of Hebrew critics favour the rendering of Zöckler, Ewald, Stier, etc., who read, “As an archer, who woundeth everything, so is he who hireth fools and vagrants” (or wayfarers). Stuart and Miller translate the first word, “arrow,” and the former thus explains the proverb, “He who employs fools and vagrants to do his work, will injure himself.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Proverbs 26:3-11
A LOW LEVEL
I. A moral fool puts himself on a level with the brute by turning a deaf ear to the voices of reason and conscience. That which above all other characteristics distinguishes man from the lower animals is the possession of a moral sense and a reasoning faculty; these are the great lights which God has given him for his guidance, by the use of which he may ever be rising to a higher moral and intellectual level. But the moral fool does not listen to them, and even after he has tasted the bitterness of disregarding them, and even while he is suffering from the evil effects of his folly, he gives evidence of his moral stupidity by returning to it (Proverbs 26:11). This is a plain proof that he is “as the horse or the mule, which have no understanding.” (Psalms 32:9).
II. Having chosen his position he must be treated accordingly. When men act like men—when their conduct is such as befits responsible and rational creatures—they are open to reason and persuasion, and their fellow-men are bound to use such means in their intercourse with them. They are bound to listen to what they have to say, and to reply to their questions and consider their objections. But to do this with such a person as is here called a fool would be to disobey our Saviour’s injunction, and to “cast our pearls before swine.” It would be letting ourselves down to his level and encouraging him in his self-conceit. This, we think, is the meaning of Proverbs 26:4. But, on the other hand, we are not always to be silent when the fool is talking. This also might lead him to think that his foolish arguments were unanswerable—that we thought him as wise as he thinks himself to be. He is to receive sometimes the stern rebuke that his folly deserves; the manifestation of our displeasure is to be in proportion to his manifestation of weakness and wickedness. This will also be “answering a fool according to his folly,” as in Proverbs 26:5. But a fool must be checked by means that will perhaps make more impression upon him than mere words. The rod must be applied—coercion and punishment must come into use where reason and moral persuasion are useless. Having placed himself on a level with the brute, he must be ruled sometimes by brute force—by the whip of compulsion, and by the bridle of restraint. Men have the power of doing this to a certain extent, and it is their duty to use it. But whether they do or do not, God will certainly visit such an offender with the rod of punishment. Whether this is the truth contained in Proverbs 26:10 or not, revelation and experience affirm it, and we have met with it repeatedly in this book. It is a great offence against Him who called us into being, and who desires His creatures to be worthy of their Creator, when men thus in practice count themselves unworthy of their destiny. The Hebrew nation, in the bygone ages, was called by God to occupy a higher moral level than the surrounding nations, but by its own stubbornness and self-conceit it made the purpose of God of none effect, and was therefore necessarily made to feel the bitterness of being treated like a wild and refractory animal (Jeremiah 31:18). And so is it with men in general. God would treat them as His sons, but their moral foolishness compels Him to make them feel the whip, the bridle, and the rod. One other thought is suggested in Proverbs 26:7-8—
III. That even the fool will sometimes adopt the speech of the wise. A parable, or wise saying, will sometimes be found on his lips, he will be sometimes heard to utter words of wisdom and give good advice. But precept is of little avail if not backed by a good example; the words and the deeds of such a man are as ill-matched as those of a cripple who has one sound and useful limb, but whose other is shrunken and useless. The gait of such a man is awkward and uncertain, the malformed and the healthy limb do not well balance his body. This is an apt illustration of the incongruity which often exists between the words and actions of a moral fool.
(For Homiletics on Proverbs 26:6; Proverbs 26:8 considered separately see on Proverbs 26:1, page 714, and on chap. Proverbs 10:26, page 179.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 26:3. The rod is needful for the fool’s back. Are you the unhappy fathers of foolish children? you must make use of the rod and reproof to give them wisdom. Are you authorised to bear rule in the church? the rod of church discipline must be applied to offenders, that they may be reclaimed, and others warned. Are you magistrates; the rod which God has put into your hands may be a means of preserving young malefactors from the gibbet at a more advanced period of life. Are you wise? beware of turning aside unto folly, that you may never need the rod. Are you fools? learn wisdom, or do not blame those whom duty and charity will oblige to use the rod for your correction.—Lawson.
Proverbs 26:4-5. Answer a fool, not with any dream that you thoroughly answer him, lest you be like him, and a fool yourself. And yet, by all means answer him. Answer wherever you can, lest he think you can’t; exploding all baseless heresies and mistakes; lest, hardening himself where he might be convinced, and defrauding himself where there is everything to be said, he erect himself against facts where he has not been taught, and become wise in his own eyes.… Answer not a fool, because much mystery does not admit of answer, and you will be a fool yourself. But more. The natural man does not discern the things of the spirit of God. If you answer a natural man with the idea that mere answers can turn him, you must “be like him,” as having no sense yourself of what is purely spiritual. Notice here a grand rebuke of reason in all attempts to convince the sinner. Nevertheless answer a fool, and bow to just as great a rebuke to reason. We use reason far too gingerly. Reason is a Divine creation. It is an instrument. There is a thought as though it were wicked to go too deep. On the contrary, we are to out-think the fool. If we leave science to work her way, she will grow wise in her own conceit. Answer her. Rationalistic infidelity is by no means an infidelity in reason. And the church should make that to be seen. Scripture has been belied in the direction of Paul to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2) Nothing is more irrational than rationalism. And one of the first answers to the fool which he shall receive in the judgment will be, that he had all the reason for believing Christ which he had for anything beside, and a host of greater ones peculiar to the gospel.—Miller.
These two sentences may seem at the first blush to be contrary … but this knot will be easily untied if it be observed that there are two sorts of answers, the one in folly, the other unto folly. A fool is not to be answered in his folly, or according unto his folly, that is to say, in such vanity as he useth, or after such a raging manner as he speaketh … A fool is to be answered unto his folly; that is, by reasons to be confuted, and by reproofs that are wise to be bridled.—Muffett.
Generally speaking, it would be better to follow Hezekiah’s command concerning Rabshakeh’s blasphemy—“Answer him not.” Jeremiah thus turned away in silence from the folly of the false prophets. (Jeremiah 28:11.) If however we are constrained to reply—Answer him not according to his folly; not in his own foolish manner; “not rendering railing for railing.” (1 Peter 3:9.) Moses offended here. He answered the rebels according to their folly—passion for passion, and thus he became like unto them. David’s answer to Nabal was in the same humiliating spirit. The answerer in this case is like the fool. He appears at the time to be cast in the same mould.—Bridges.
Proverbs 26:7. Uniformity and ubiquity of obedience are sure signs of sincerity; but as an unequal pulse argues a distempered body, so doth uneven walking a diseased soul. A wise man’s life is all of one colour, like itself, and godliness runs through it, as the woof runs through the warp. But if all the parts of the line of thy life be not straight before God, it is a crooked life. If thy tongue speak by the talent, but thine hands scarce work by the ounce, thou shalt pass for a Pharisee (Matthew 23:3). They spake like angels, lived like devils; had heaven commonly at their tongue ends, but the earth continually at their finger ends.—Trapp.
Proverbs 26:9. When a drunkard carries and brandishes in his hand a sweet briar, he scratches more with it than he allows the roses to be smelled; so a fool with the Scriptures or a judicial maxim oft causes more harm than profit.—Luther.
Proverbs have sometimes been hurtful even in the mouths of wise men, through the imperfection of their wisdom. Job’s friends dealt much in parables, which they had learned by tradition from their wise ancestors, but they misapplied them to the case of Job; and although they meant to plead the cause of God, yet they displeased Him so much by their uncharitable speeches against Job, which they drew by unjust inference from undoubted truths, that He told them they had not spoken the thing that was right concerning Him as His servant Job had done. If Job had not been a strong believer, their management of truth must have sunk him into despondency.—Lawson.
Proverbs 26:11. The emblem is a loathsome and sickening one. It is meant to be so. It would not have been appropriate, had it been anything else. There are two ideas conveyed by the comparison. The disposition or tendency, on the part of the fool or vicious man, to return to his folly; and the loathsomeness—the vileness—of the thing itself, when it does take place. There are persons of great pretensions to refinement, who affect great disgust at the comparison. They wonder how anybody of ordinary delicacy can utter it. They would think their lips polluted by the very words. It were well for such persons to remember, that there is no comparison so odious as the thing itself which is represented by it. It were well if such persons would transfer their disgust and loathing at the figure to that which the figure represents:—if they would cherish a proper loathing of sin. That is what God holds in abhorrence:—that is what should be abhorred by us. Persons may affect to sicken at the comparison here used, and yet be themselves exemplifying the very conduct it so aptly represents. Folly and sin are incomparably more polluting and debasing to the nature of man, than the vilest and most disgusting practices in the inferior animals.”—Wardlaw.
And is this the picture of man—“made a little lower than the angels” (Psalms 8:5)—yea—“made in the likeness of God?” (Genesis 1:26.) Who that saw Adam in his universal dominion, sitting as the monarch of creation; summoning all before him; giving to each his name, and receiving in turn his homage (Ib. Proverbs 2:20)—who would have conceived of his children sunk into such brutish degradation? The tempter’s promise was—“Ye shall be as gods” (Ib. Proverbs 3:5). The result of this promise was—“Ye shall be as beasts.” … Thus greedily did Pharaoh return from his momentary conviction; Ahab from his feigned repentance; Herod from his partial amendment; the drunkard from his brutish insensibility—all to take a more determinate course of sin; to take their final plunge into ruin.—Bridges.
According to the usual method of the Scriptures, a known thing is here employed to teach an unknown. The taste which inheres in nature is used as an instrument to implant the corresponding spiritual sensibility. The revulsion of the senses from a loathsome object is used as a lever power to press into the soul a dislike of sin.… The lines are strongly drawn, that the lesson may be clear and cutting. There must be a rude hearty blow, for there is a hard searing to be penetrated. Those who go back to suck at sins, which they once repudiated, may see in this terse proverb a picture of their pollution; only the Omniscient perfectly knows and loathes the vile original—Arnot.