Proverbschapter 26
28 verses · Solomon and others · 10th to 5th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
Like snow in summer and rain at harvest, honor does not befit a fool.
Introduction
Solomon and others, Wisdom and poetry, Proverbs Overview.
Hezekiah's scribes copied this chapter from Solomon's sayings, and it reads as a gallery of the fool, the sluggard and the troublemaker. The first hearers lived beside such people in the street and the village and could not avoid them. Its sayings come in clusters, each built on a sharp picture from the stable, the roadside or the house. Listen for the two sayings set back to back that seem to disagree, and ask what the pair teaches together. The chapter shows how much damage is done by people who insist they mean no harm.
Context
- Who
- People living alongside fools, gossips, and troublemakers they cannot avoid
- What
- Sayings from the Hezekiah collection in three clusters: the fool, the sluggard, and the gossip and liar.
- Where
- The streets and houses of the towns of Judah.
- When
- Sayings of Solomon from about 970 to 931 BC, copied out under Hezekiah, about 715 to 686 BC.
- Why
- To teach the hearer to recognise these people, to answer them wisely and to keep from becoming one of them.
Historical context
"A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back." These are three tools for three animals, and putting the fool third is the insult. Donkeys were the ordinary work animal, guided by a bridle; horses were for chariots and war and driven with a whip.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
"Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross." A potsherd is a broken piece of a jar, worthless, everywhere underfoot. Dross is the scum skimmed off molten silver. Glazing rubbish with waste metal to make it shine is exactly the trick being described.
"As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly." Dogs in that world were not pets. They were half-wild scavengers around the edges of town that ate refuse and corpses, and calling a man a dog was a serious insult. The proverb is not being cute.
"As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?" Houses had wooden beams, brush roofing, and stored straw. A man throwing burning brands through a town could destroy a quarter of it, and the joke defence at the end is the point.
The two verses about answering a fool sit deliberately back to back, do not answer him according to his folly, and answer him according to his folly. Hebrew teaching often set two sayings against each other to show that wisdom is knowing which one this moment calls for.
Significance
"Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth" was heard in villages where a rumour could move faster than a man on a donkey and last for years.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The whole chapter is a portrait gallery of people who damage a community while insisting they mean no harm. The first hearers could have put names to every frame.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No public reading in the synagogue is drawn from this chapter. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts was probed for this lane over Proverbs 16 to 31. It printed parashot total 0, haftarah uses total 0 and 0 chapters with a synagogue reading. It printed null for a festival reading of the book. The same probe printed 54 weekly portions and 6 festival readings in the table as a whole. The corpus ties no custom of the home or the synagogue to this chapter, so this part records the absence.
The chapter is met in the study of the Midrash and the Talmud instead. The corpus links it to twenty collections. The two it cites most often here are Ein Yaakov and Bamidbar Rabbah.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. The fourth and fifth verses give two opposite instructions about answering a fool, and Rashi resolves them by the subject of the answer. "Do not answer a fool with words of quarrel and contention lest you become like him" (Rashi on Proverbs 26:4:1). "Answer a fool who comes to win you over to idolatry; let him know his folly" (Rashi on Proverbs 26:5:1). The book dossier this site carries reads the same pair as instruction in judgment, the right answer depending on the moment.
The stone in the sling of the eighth verse has a plain reading and a reading of the Sages. The honour given to a fool does not last, and "our Sages (Hullin 133a) explained it homiletically as referring to one who teaches Torah to an unfitting student" (Rashi on Proverbs 26:8:1). The words of the talebearer at the twenty-second verse are read by the Sages as death, and Rashi applies it to Numbers: "The words of the spies became their death" (Rashi on Proverbs 26:22:1).
The images of strife are drawn out in full. The one who meddles in another's quarrel is like one who grabs a dog by its ears, "who causes him to bite him for no reason" (Rashi on Proverbs 26:17:1). The fire that goes out without wood is strife without a grumbler, "who slanders and incites quarrelers" (Rashi on Proverbs 26:20:1). The deceiver of the nineteenth verse entices his friend and then, when he is found out, "he says, “I am joking.”" (Rashi on Proverbs 26:19:1).
The corpus carries four further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They are cited by ref alone: Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 26:11:1, 26:12:1, 26:13:1 and 26:14:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-seven filed as Midrash and three as Talmud, and the text of none, so each is cited here by its ref and never quoted or paraphrased. At verse 2 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Makkot 2:7, with Ein Yaakov, Makkot 2:11. At verse 3 it holds Shemot Rabbah 20:1. At verse 4 it holds Bava Metzia 84a:5, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 2:12. At verse 5 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 21:22:12. At verse 6 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 16:2 and Bamidbar Rabbah 16:5. At verse 8 it holds Chullin 133a:16, with Ein Yaakov, Khullin 10:3. At verse 9 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 20:26:4. At verse 11 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 8:21, with Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:28. At verse 12 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 22:6. At verse 13 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 21:1 and Devarim Rabbah 8:6. At verse 14 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 19:9:5, with Otzar Midrashim, Chuppah of Eliyahu, Chuppat Eliyahu Rabbah 13. At verse 15 it holds Shemot Rabbah 9:8. At verse 16 it holds Shemot Rabbah 15:20. At verse 17 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 75:3, with Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayishlach 2:1. At verses 18 to 19 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 37:3 and Bereshit Rabbah 53:11. At verse 19 it holds Midrash Mishlei 26:3, with Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 21:6:2. At verse 21 it holds Midrash Tehillim 1:20 and Midrash Tehillim 11:6. At verse 22 it holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 1:27:1 and Sifrei Bamidbar 85:1. At verse 23 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Nezikin 13:17, with Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Toldot 9:1. At verse 24 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 14:26:2, with Midrash Mishlei 26:4. At verse 25 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 65:11, with Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 26:34:3. At verse 26 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:24, with Ein Yaakov, Sotah 1:22. At verse 27 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 26:2 and Bamidbar Rabbah 22:4. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and it is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Proverbs 26:1:1 to 26:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 26:11:1, 26:12:1, 26:13:1 and 26:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/proverbs/26.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book; The book dossier, src/components/book/dossier-content/proverbs.ts, for the headings and the shape of the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Answer a Fool According to His Folly: and Answer Him Not
Proverbs 26:1-3
Like snow in summer: The chapter opens a row of eleven proverbs on the fool, and the first three work by comparison. Honor on a fool is weather out of season, "snow in summer and rain at harvest." The rod for fools completes a set with the whip and the bridle.
Proverbs 26:1
“In Palestine there is commonly hardly any rain from the early showers of spring to October. Hence, “rain in harvest” became sometimes (see the marginal reference) a supernatural sign, sometimes, as here, a proverb for whatever was strange and incongruous.”
an undeserved curse does not come to rest: Adam Clarke notes that the Hebrew word for the sparrow covers any small bird. He pictures the curse passing like the swallow, a bird of passage, without touching the innocent. The Apostolic Constitutions add that injustice done to others returns on the one who does it.
Proverbs 26:2
“As the bird - צפור tsippor is taken often for the sparrow; but means generally any small bird. As the sparrow flies about the house, and the swallow emigrates to strange countries; so an undeserved malediction may flutter about the neighborhood for a season: but in a short time it will disappear as the bird of passage; and never take effect on the innocent person against whom it was pronounced.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 26:2
"As birds and sparrows fly away, so the curse causeless shall not come upon any one." And again [Solomon] says, "Those that bring reproaches are exceedingly foolish." But as the bee, a creature as to its strength feeble, if it stings anyone, loses its sting and becomes a drone; in the same manner you also, whatsoever injustice you do to others, will bring it upon yourselves. .
Apostolic Constitutions · written before 380 · Constitutions of the Holy Apostlespatristic
a rod for the backs of fools!: Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read the rod as needed by fools and as well suited to them as whips and bridles are to beasts. The fool is ranked with the horse and the donkey.
Proverbs 26:3
“The rod is as much needed by fools and as well suited to them, as whips and bridles are for beasts. Answer not--that is, approvingly by like folly.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Proverbs 26:4-5
Do not answer a fool according to his folly: y" stands beside "Answer a fool according to his folly." A proverb is wisdom for a situation. Do not sink to his manner, "or you yourself will be like him," yet puncture his self-estimate, "lest he become wise in his own eyes."
lest he become wise in his own eyes: Verse 4 says hold back, and verse 5 says answer. One answer copies his folly and makes you like him, and the other stops the fool from becoming wise in his own eyes. Knowing which case is in front of you is the wisdom the pair teaches.
Proverbs 26:6-10
Like cutting off one’s own feet: Sending a message by a fool is like cutting off your own feet, and honoring him is like "binding a stone into a sling." A proverb in his mouth hangs like lame legs or pierces like a drunkard's thorn, and even true words harm when he carries them.
Proverbs 26:6
Cutteth off the feet - Sending by such a person is utterly useless. My old MS. Bible translates well: Halt in feet and drinking wickednesse that sendith wordis bi a foole messager. Nothing but lameness in himself can vindicate his sending it by such hands; and, after all, the expedient will be worse than the total omission, for he is likely to drink wickedness, i.e., the mischief occasioned by the fool’s misconduct. Coverdale nearly hits the sense as usual: “He is lame of his fete, yee dronken is he in vanite, that committeth eny thinge to a foole.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Like lame legs hanging limp: Albert Barnes gives three readings of the lame legs. They may be taken away as useless, hang feeble, or be a lame man's attempt at dancing, and each pictures the proverb a fool carries. The saying is true, and the fool cannot use it.
Proverbs 26:7
Or, Take away the legs of the lame man, and the parable that is in the mouth of fools: both are alike useless to their possessors. Other meanings are: (1) “The legs of the lame man are feeble, so is parable in the mouth of fools.” (2) “the lifting up of the legs of a lame man, i. e., his attempts at dancing, are as the parable in the mouth of fools.”
Like binding a stone into a sling: Binding a stone into a sling makes it useless, and honor given to a fool is thrown away in the same manner. Adam Clarke calls the proverb difficult. He notes that the Hebrew may also be read as a precious stone set among a heap of stones.
Proverbs 26:8
“As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honor to a fool - It is entirely thrown away. This, however, is a difficult proverb; and the versions give but little light on the subject. The Hebrew may be translated, “As a piece of precious stone among a heap of stones, so is he that giveth honor to a fool.” Or, As he that putteth a precious stone in a heap of stones.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Like a thorn that falls into the hand: Albert Barnes renders the thorn as lifted up in the drunkard's hand, a weapon that may hurt himself or others. A fool with a proverb does the same harm. Origen reads the thorns as sin rooted in the hands of those drunk with evil.
Proverbs 26:9
“The sin of all people is not taken away by the Lamb if they neither grieve nor are tormented till it be taken away. For since thorns have not only been sown but have also taken deep root in the hands of everyone who has become drunk because of evil, and has lost sobriety, according to what is said in Proverbs, "Thorns grow in the hand of the drunkard." So what must we say in addition regarding the extent of distress they produce in him who has received such plants into the body of his own soul?”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Commentary on the Gospel of John 6:297-98patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 26:9
“Better: “As a thorn which is lifted up in the hand of the drunkard” etc. As such a weapon so used may do mischief to the man himself or to others, so may the sharp, keen-edged proverb when used by one who does not understand it.”
Like an archer who wounds at random: The Hebrew of verse 10 is difficult, and the versions divide. Clarke explains its first word may mean the great God or a great man, and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown judge the word God wrongly supplied. The Berean gives an archer who wounds at random.
Proverbs 26:10
“The great God that formed all things - Or, A great man grieveth all, and he hireth the fool, he hireth also transgressors, where this verse is very differently translated. I shall add that of Coverdale: “A man of experience discerneth all thinges well: but whoso hyreth a foole, hyreth soch one as wyl take no hede.” The רב rab may mean either the great God, or a great man: hence the two renderings, in the text and in the margin.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 26:10
“Various versions of this are proposed (compare Margin). Better perhaps--"Much He injures (or literally, "wounds") all who reward," &c., that is, society is injured by encouraging evil men. transgressors--may be rendered "vagrants." The word "God" is improperly supplied.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Proverbs 26:11-12
As a dog returns to its vomit: The dog returning to its vomit is quoted at 2 Peter 2:22 as a true proverb and applied there to those who turned back. After eleven verses on the fool, the self-satisfied man ranks below him, for "There is more hope for a fool than for him."
Proverbs 26:11
“11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. What an abominable thing sin is, and how hateful sometimes it is made to appear, even to the sinner himself. When his conscience is convinced, or he feels smart from his sin, he is sick of it, and vomits it up; he seems then to detest it and to be willing to part with it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Cross references
Proverbs 26:11
- Quoted in2 Peter 2:22Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
'The dog is turned to his own vomit again' (the true proverb of apostates)
Do you see a man who is wise: Verse 12 ranks a man who thinks himself wise below the fool of verses 1 to 11. There is more hope for the fool. Gregory of Nazianzus calls self-conceit an evil under the sun, and a greater evil still is to set such a man to teach others.
Proverbs 26:12
“There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, a person wise in his own conceit; and a still greater evil is to charge with the instruction of others a person who is not even aware of his own ignorance.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · In Defense of His Flight, Oration 2:50patristic
The Sluggard: There Is a Lion in the Way
Proverbs 26:13-16
The slacker says: Four proverbs on the slacker read as small comedies: the lion invented to keep him indoors, the door turning as he turns on his bed. The last verse stops the laughter, for "The slacker is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly."
Proverbs 26:13
“Compare the marginal reference note. Here there is greater dramatic vividness in the two words used: (1) A roaring one, (2) a lion, more specifically.”
As a door turns on its hinges: A door moves all day and goes nowhere. The slacker turns on his bed in the same way, fixed to it and making no progress. The four slacker proverbs of verses 13 to 16 read as small comedies, and this one pictures motion without progress.
Proverbs 26:14
“As the door turneth upon his hinges,.... And moves this way and that way, and opens and shuts, and yet hangs where it did, is not moved from its place: so doth the slothful upon his bed; he turns himself from side to side, but is still on his bed, and does not move out of it, and go about his business.”
The slacker buries his hand in the dish: John Gill notes that the Hebrew word for the dish can also mean the bosom. He cites a Jewish commentator who pictured the slacker warming his hand in a hot dish against the cold. Bringing his hand back to his mouth wearies him.
Proverbs 26:15
“The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom,.... To keep it warm; Jarchi's note is, "he puts his hand in a hot basin, because of the cold.'' The word (c) for "bosom" does sometimes signify a "pot" or basin.”
than seven men who answer discreetly: Adam Clarke reads seven as a number of fullness, so the slacker thinks himself wiser than a whole company of the wisest men. He compares the seven to teachers who sat to teach. The slacker's certainty joins him to the man wise in his own eyes at verse 12.
Proverbs 26:16
“Than seven men that can render a reason - Seven here only means perfection, abundance, or multitude. He is wiser in his own eyes than a multitude of the wisest men. “Than seven men that sytt and teach.” - Coverdale; i.e., than seven doctors of the law, or heads of the schools of the prophets, who always sat while they taught.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Where No Wood Is, the Fire Goeth Out
Proverbs 26:17-22
Like one who grabs a dog by the ears: A passerby who meddles in a quarrel not his own has grabbed a dog by the ears, safe neither holding on nor letting go. The man who deceives his neighbor and calls it a joke is a madman shooting firebrands and deadly arrows. Strife dies when no one feeds it.
Like a madman shooting firebrands and deadly arrows: Verse 18 begins a comparison that verse 19 completes. John Gill pictures a madman shooting firebrands into his neighbor's houses and barns and deadly arrows at his cattle. Albert Barnes sets beside him the man who deceives his neighbor and then says he was only joking.
Proverbs 26:18
“The teacher cuts off the plea which people make when they have hurt their neighbor by lies, that they “did not mean mischief,” that they were “only in fun.” Such jesting is like that of the madman flinging firebrands or arrows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 26:18
“As a mad man, who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death. Or the instruments of death, as Aben Ezra; or the sharp arrows of death, as the Targum and Syriac version; who casts firebrands into the houses and barns of his neighbours, to consume them; or arrows at their persons and cattle, to destroy them; or any other instruments of death, which none but a mad man, or one wickedly mad, would do.”
the man who deceives his neighbor: says he was only joking once he is caught. John Gill lists the deceptions as a lie, a false report, cheating in trade or quiet theft. Uncaught, he would have meant it.
Proverbs 26:19
“So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour,.... By telling him a lie; or by reporting false things concerning him; or by cheating him in trade and commerce; or by taking his goods privately from him; and, when caught in either of these, and saith, Am not I in sport? do not be angry, I designed no hurt; it is all in jest, a mere joke: but, had he not been apprehended, it would have been in earnest, as he was.”
Without wood, a fire goes out: Adam Clarke names both the one who tells tales and the one who receives them as agents of discord. And he cites the saying that the receiver is as bad as the thief. Without wood the fire goes out, and without gossip the conflict ceases.
Proverbs 26:20
“Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out - The tale-receiver and the tale-bearer are the agents of discord. If none received the slander in the first instance, it could not be propagated. Hence our proverb, “The receiver is as bad as the thief.” And our laws treat them equally; for the receiver of stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen, is hanged, as well as he who stole them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a quarrelsome man for kindling strife: Verse 21 follows the fire of verse 20 with its fuel. Charcoal keeps embers glowing and wood feeds a fire, and a quarrelsome man keeps strife alive in the same way. Where gossip spreads the fire, he rekindles it.
Proverbs 26:21
“Of a wicked heart showing itself in burning lips, furious, passionate, outrageous words, burning in malice, and persecuting those to whom, or of whom, they are spoken; ill words and ill-will agree as well together as a potsherd and the dross of silver, which, now that the pot is broken and the dross separated from the silver, are fit to be thrown together to the dunghill.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The words of a gossip: go down like choice morsels into the inmost being, and the saying repeats 18:8. John Gill explains the repetition by its importance. Matthew Henry traces the harm of such words to the name of the one slandered and to the hearer's love for his neighbor.
Proverbs 26:22
“The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. These expressions are the same with those in Pro 18:8; and are here repeated, as being found along with others by the men of Hezekiah, Pro 25:1; as some others likewise are; and also because of the importance of them; and to impress the minds of men with a sense of the evil of such a practice, that they may shun it, and avoid those that are given to it. See Gill on Pro 18:8.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 26:22
“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 neighbour and give a fatal stab to friendship and Christian fellowship.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Proverbs 26:23-28
Like glaze covering an earthen vessel: The chapter pictures "burning lips and a wicked heart" as "glaze covering an earthen vessel." The hater who speaks graciously hides seven abominations. The digger who falls into his own pit and the stone that rolls back are the reversal enacted at Psalm 7:15-16 and in Haman's gallows.
Proverbs 26:23
“Burning lips, and a wicked heart,.... Either burning with wrath and malice; breathing out threatenings and slaughter; pursuing men with reproaches and slanders, arising from a wicked heart: or rather, burning with profession of love to God, and affection to good men; with great pretensions of kindness, and promises of good things, when their hearts are wicked, and they design noticing less; say one thing with their lips, with the greatest show of affection and sincerity, and mean another in their hearts.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 26:23
“Burning lips - i. e., “Lips glowing with, affection, uttering warm words of love,” joined with a malignant heart, are like a piece of broken earthenware from the furnace, which glitters with the silver drops at stick to it, but is itself worthless.”
A hateful man disguises himself with his speech: Matthew Henry applies the verse to Satan, a hateful enemy who disguises himself with fair speech, as he did with Eve. To believe him is madness. The glaze over an earthen vessel in verse 23 pictures the same disguise, burning lips over a wicked heart.
Proverbs 26:24
“Satan is an enemy that hates us, and yet in his temptations speaks fair, as he did to Eve, but it is madness to give credit to him, for there are seven abominations in his heart; seven other spirits does one unclean spirit bring more wicked than himself.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
seven abominations fill his heart: Seven marks completeness here, as Albert Barnes reads it. Evil has done all its work in such a heart and keeps its own accursed Sabbath there. However graciously such a man speaks, his heart is full of abominations.
Proverbs 26:25
Seven abominations - Compare Pro 26:16 note. Here “seven” retains, perhaps, its significance as the symbol of completeness. Evil has, as it were, gone through all its work, and holds its accursed Sabbath in the heart in which all things are “very evil.”
his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly: Hatred concealed by deception is exposed in the assembly. Albert Barnes places that exposure in the time of need, when feigned friendship turns into open enmity. Matthew Henry adds that God catches the plotter in his own cruelty, and he names Haman hanged on the gallows he prepared.
Proverbs 26:26
“Better, “Hatred is covered by deceit, but in the midst of the congregation his wickedness will be made manifest,” i. e., then, in the time of need, the feigned friendship will pass into open enmity.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 26:26
“The righteous God will take the wise, not only in their own craftiness, but in their own cruelty. It is the plotter's doom. Haman is hanged on a gallows of his own preparing. ----------nec lex est justior ulla Quam necis artifices arte perire sua-- Nor is there any law more just than that the contrivers of destruction should perish by their own arts.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
he who rolls a stone: Albert Barnes places the rolling stone in the rough warfare of an earlier age, with a man rolling a stone up to the heights. He cites Judges 9:53 and 2 Samuel 11:21. The stone returns on the man who rolls it, as the pit swallows its digger.
Proverbs 26:27
“Rolleth a stone - The illustration refers, probably, to the use made of stones in the rough warfare of an earlier age. Compare Jdg 9:53; 2Sa 11:21. The man is supposed to be rolling the stone up to the heights.”
A lying tongue hates those it crushes: Adam Clarke reads the first line as a strange law of the heart. A lying tongue hates those it crushes, in proportion to the injury and to their innocence. Clarke compares the debtor who avoids his creditor.
Proverbs 26:28
“A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it - He that injures another hates him in proportion to the injury he has done him; and, strange to tell, in proportion to the innocence of the oppressed. The debtor cannot bear the sight of his creditor; nor the knave, of him whom he has injured.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Apostolic Constitutions, CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Gregory of Nazianzus, IN DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT, ORATION 2:50; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6:297-98.