A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass. So the Vulgate: but the Chaldaic, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic translate, 'a spur for the ass.' The Hebrew ( meteg (H4964)) commonly means a bridle; and though we should say ordinarily, 'A whip for the donkey; a bridle for the horse,' yet in the style of Proverbs one clause is to be supplied from the other, A whip and a bridle for the horse and the donkey. As they need at one time the whip, at another the bridle; so the "fool" needs "a rod for his back," to keep him from rushing into sinful folly. The ungodly are like "brute beasts" (Psalms 32:9; Jude 1:10; Proverbs 10:13; Proverbs 19:29). He who will not heed words must heed strokes.