As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool
Honour paid to the wicked unseemly and pernicious
The respect which man pays his fellow is often grounded on reasons immoral and absurd.
Sometimes man is respected on the ground of his personal appearance, sometimes on the ground of his mental abilities, sometimes on the ground of his worldly possessions, sometimes on the ground of his lineage and social position; but respect for men on any of these grounds alone is very questionable in morality. The true and Divinely authorised ground of respect for man is moral goodness. The man who is morally good, however deficient in other things, has a Divine claim to our honour.
I. Honour paid to the wicked is unseemly. It is like “snow in summer and rain in harvest.” It is unseasonable and incongruous. How unseemly nature would appear in August with snow mantling our cornfields! Souls are morally constituted to reverence the good; to abhor the morally bad, wherever it is seen, whether in connection with lordly possessions, kingly power, or, what is higher still, mental genius.
II. Honour paid to the wicked is pernicious. “Snow in summer and rain in harvest” are in nature mischievous elements. Their tendency is to rob the agriculturist of the rewards of his labour, and to bring on a famine in the land. Far more mischievous is it when the people of a country sink so morally low as to render honour to men who are destitute of moral goodness. The perniciousness is also expressed by another figure in the text, “As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honour to a fool.” The word translated “sling” means a heap of stones, and the word “stone” a precious stone. Hence the margin reads, “As he that putteth a precious stone in an heap of stones, so is he that giveth honour to a fool.” The idea evidently is, as a precious stone amongst rubbish, so is honour given to a fool. (D. Thomas, D. D.)