Proverbs 26:9
Like a thorn that falls into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
BSB
ASV
As a thorn that goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, So is a parable in the mouth of fools.
KJV
As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
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?
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.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk5
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Proverbs 23:35“They struck me, but I feel no pain! They beat me, but I did not know it! When can I wake up to search for another drink?”
leads to
O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than…
“Come, let me get the wine, let us imbibe the strong drink, and tomorrow will be like today, only far better!”
If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for human motives, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.
But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
