Proverbs 26: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Proverbs 26 is a collection of short sayings grouped by subject. Verses 1 through 12 use one comparison after another to describe the fool and what happens when he is honored, trusted with a message, or handed a wise saying. Verses 13 through 16 picture the lazy man, and verses 17 through 28 turn to people who stir up trouble: the meddler, the trickster who calls it a joke, the gossip, the quarreler, and the man who hides hatred behind pleasant words.

Claim by Claim

1. 26:1
   • Snow in summer is out of place.
   • Rain at harvest time is out of place.
   • Honor is not fitting for a fool.
2. 26:2
   • A bird wanders in flight.
   • A swallow flies.
   • An undeserved curse does not come to rest.
3. 26:3
   • A whip is for the horse.
   • A bridle is for the donkey.
   • A rod is for the back of fools.
4. 26:4
   • Do not answer a fool according to his folly.
   • If you answer a fool according to his folly, you will become like him.
5. 26:5
   • Answer a fool according to his folly.
   • If you do not answer a fool according to his folly, he will be wise in his own eyes.
6. 26:6
   • Sending a message by the hand of a fool is like cutting off one's own feet.
   • Sending a message by the hand of a fool is like drinking violence.
7. 26:7
   • The legs of a lame man hang useless.
   • A proverb in the mouth of fools is like the useless legs of a lame man.
8. 26:8
   • Binding a stone in a sling is futile.
   • Giving honor to a fool is like binding a stone in a sling.
9. 26:9
   • A thorn comes up into the hand of a drunkard.
   • A proverb in the mouth of fools is like a thorn in a drunkard's hand.
10. 26:10
    • The great God formed all things.
    • God rewards the fool.
    • God rewards transgressors.
11. 26:11
    • A dog returns to its vomit.
    • A fool repeats his folly.
12. 26:12
    • A man may be wise in his own eyes.
    • There is more hope for a fool than for a man who is wise in his own eyes.
13. 26:13
    • The sluggard says there is a lion in the road.
    • The sluggard says there is a lion in the open squares.
14. 26:14
    • A door turns on its hinge.
    • The sluggard turns on his bed.
15. 26:15
    • The sluggard buries his hand in the dish.
    • The sluggard is too weary to bring his hand back to his mouth.
16. 26:16
    • The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer with discernment.
17. 26:17
    • A passerby who meddles in a quarrel that is not his own is like one who grabs a dog by the ears.
18. 26:18
    • A madman shoots firebrands, arrows, and death.
19. 26:19
    • A man deceives his neighbor.
    • The man who deceived his neighbor says he was only joking.
    • The man who deceives his neighbor and calls it a joke is like a madman shooting deadly missiles.
20. 26:20
    • Where there is no wood, the fire goes out.
    • Where there is no talebearer, strife ceases.
21. 26:21
    • Charcoal is for embers.
    • Wood is for fire.
    • A contentious man is for kindling strife.
22. 26:22
    • The words of a talebearer are like wounds.
    • The words of a talebearer go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
23. 26:23
    • Silver dross spread over an earthen vessel is a coating.
    • Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.
24. 26:24
    • He who hates disguises himself with his lips.
    • He who hates stores up deceit within himself.
25. 26:25
    • When he speaks graciously, do not believe him.
    • There are seven abominations in his heart.
26. 26:26
    • Hatred may be covered by deception.
    • His wickedness will be exposed before the assembly.
27. 26:27
    • Whoever digs a pit will fall into it.
    • He who rolls a stone will have it return upon him.
28. 26:28
    • A lying tongue hates those it crushes.
    • A flattering mouth works ruin.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

26:1

In Israel the grain harvest falls in the dry season, when rain does not normally fall and would ruin the crop laid out to dry; snow in summer never happens at all. Both images are freak weather that does damage: that is the point of the comparison.

26:2

In the ancient world a curse was a spoken formula calling down harm on a named person, and it was taken to have real force once uttered. "With no cause" means undeserved. The bird images are of something that flits past overhead without ever settling.

26:3

The rod is a stick used for beating, the standard image of discipline in Proverbs. The saying lists three tools alongside three creatures that will not respond to reason.

26:4

The Hebrew phrase translated "the way his foolish talk invites you to" in this verse and "the way his foolish talk deserves" in the next is exactly the same in both. It can mean either "on his own foolish terms" or "in the manner his folly calls for," and the two verses were deliberately set side by side, each warning of a different risk.

26:5

Same Hebrew phrase as in verse 4; see the note there. Ancient readers were expected to notice the pair and weigh which situation they were in.

26:6

"Cutting off your own feet" means destroying your own means of getting somewhere, the messenger was your legs. "Drinking down harm" is a Hebrew idiom for swallowing trouble you brought on yourself; the word behind "harm" can also mean violence.

26:7

The Hebrew here is difficult and its exact sense is disputed; it reads roughly "legs dangle from a lame man." The comparison is that both hang there looking like the real thing while doing no actual work.

26:8

A sling is a strap that is whirled and then released so the stone flies. Tying the stone into it makes the weapon useless and a danger to the man swinging it. Some read the Hebrew instead as setting a precious stone in a heap of ordinary stones; either way the honor is wasted.

26:9

"Comes up in the hand" means the thorn drives into it. The image is deliberately open: a drunk man may not even feel the wound, and he waves the branch about and injures others. The wise saying in a fool's mouth is wasted and dangerous in the same way.

26:10

This verse is one of the most obscure sentences in the book, and ancient and modern translators disagree sharply about it. The King James translators read it as being about God repaying fools and lawbreakers; other readings take it as an archer shooting at random, or as a man who hires a fool or a passing stranger and wounds everyone in the process.

26:11

Vomit is what comes up when someone throws up. Dogs really do go back and sniff it.

26:13

Lions did live in the thickets of the Jordan valley in biblical times, so a lion on a country road is a conceivable danger, but a lion loose in the town streets is not. The excuse escalates into absurdity.

26:15

The Hebrew word here is usually taken to mean a dish or bowl; the King James translators read it as the fold of a garment. People ate with their hands from a shared serving bowl, so the lazy man has already reached the food and cannot be bothered to lift it to his mouth.

26:16

Seven is a round number in Hebrew for a full or complete set. "A sensible answer" is literally an answer given with discretion or good judgment.

26:17

Dogs in ancient Israel were mostly half-wild scavengers around towns, not household pets. Grabbing one by the ears guarantees a bite and pins you there holding on.

26:18

Firebrands are burning sticks or flaming arrows, used to set fields and buildings alight. The Hebrew lists "firebrands, arrows, death", the last item probably meaning deadly missiles of some kind.

26:19

"Am not I in sport?" is old English for "I was only playing."

26:20

The King James word "talebearer" means a gossip, a person who carries stories about others from house to house.

26:21

Charcoal is wood burned slowly until it turns black. It holds heat well and makes a fire burn hotter and longer.

26:22

The Hebrew word describing the gossip's words is uncertain: it may mean wounds, as the King James translators took it, or dainty morsels swallowed greedily, as many now read it. Both readings end the same way, the words go all the way down and stay.

26:23

Silver dross is the worthless scum skimmed off molten silver when it is refined. Coating a cheap clay pot with it makes the pot glitter like something valuable. Many scholars now read the Hebrew as "glaze on an earthen vessel," which comes to the same image. "Warm, eager words" translates a phrase literally meaning burning lips.

26:24

The King James word "dissembleth" means disguises or covers up. He makes his words sound friendly to hide what he really feels.

26:25

Seven again stands for a full or complete set (see verse 16). "Vile things" translates a word for what is detestable or disgusting, the strongest term of revulsion the Hebrew has.

26:26

The assembly is the gathered adult community of a town. Disputes were heard and reputations made or destroyed in public, at the open space by the town gate, in front of everyone.

26:27

The pit is a covered trap dug to catch game; the digger who forgets where it is falls in himself. The second image is of a heavy stone hauled up a slope, which crushes the man below it if it gets away.

26:28

The Hebrew of the first line is clipped and disputed. It can mean that a liar comes to hate the people his lies have crushed, or that lies do harm to the very people they wound.