Proverbschapter 26
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Speaks with:Proverbs 10×5Proverbs 26×5Proverbs 19×4Proverbs 15×3Proverbs 12×3Proverbs 28×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The fool's chapter, with its famous facing pair: 'Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit' (26:4-5), wisdom as knowing which moment demands which. As a dog that returneth to his vomit, so is a fool that repeateth his folly (2 Peter 2:22). The sluggard says, 'There is a lion in the way.' Where no wood is, the fire goeth out; 'so where there is no whisperer, contention ceaseth.' Fervent lips with a wicked heart are an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross.
Context
Poetry · Solomon, Agur, Lemuel — Proverbs overview
- A. 1–12 Answer a Fool According to His Folly — and Answer Him Not
- B. 13–16 The Sluggard: There Is a Lion in the Way
- C. 17–28 Where No Wood Is, the Fire Goeth Out
The outline
A.Answer a Fool According to His Folly — and Answer Him Notvv. 1 to 12
Read vv. 1 to 12 →B.The Sluggard: There Is a Lion in the Wayvv. 13 to 16
Read vv. 13 to 16 →C.Where No Wood Is, the Fire Goeth Outvv. 17 to 28
Read vv. 17 to 28 →
The world behind this chapter
Proverbs 26The history
"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.
"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.
What it meant to them
"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.
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.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Proverbs 26. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.