1
As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not
seemly for a fool.
2 As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the
curse causeless shall not come.
3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the
fool's back.
4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be
like unto him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his
own conceit.
6 He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off
the feet, and drinketh damage.
7 The legs of the lame are not equal: so is a parable in the
mouth of fools.
8 As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth
honour to a fool.
9 As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a
parable in the mouths of fools.
10 The great God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool,
and rewardeth transgressors.
11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his
folly.
12 Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope
of a fool than of him.
13 The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is
in the streets.
14 As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful
upon his bed.
15 The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to
bring it again to his mouth.
16 The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that
can render a reason.
17 He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to
him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.
18 As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death,
19 So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not
I in sport?
20 Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is
no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.
21 As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a
contentious man to kindle strife.
22 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down
into the innermost parts of the belly.
23 Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered
with silver dross.
24 He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up
deceit within him;
25 When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven
abominations in his heart.
26 Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be
shewed before the whole congregation.
27 Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a
stone, it will return upon him.
28 A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a
flattering mouth worketh ruin.1
Bible Commentary
1 As
snow in summer is unsuitable to the time, and as rain in harvest is
injurious, so giving honour to
a fool is
absurd and unbecoming.2,3
2
Give honour to a fool, and he thunders out causeless curses against
all that he is disgusted with, right or wrong, wishing ill to others
upon presumption that they are bad and have done ill, when either
they mistake the person or misunderstand the fact, or they call evil
good and good evil. He that is cursed without cause, the curse shall
do him no more harm than the bird that flies over his head. It will
fly away like the sparrow or the wild dove, which go nobody knows
where, till they return to their proper place, as the curse will at
length return upon the head of him that uttered it.2
//-->
3
Wicked men are compared to the horse and the ass. An unbroken horse
needs a whip for correction, and an ass a bridle for direction and
to check him when he would turn out of the way; so a vicious man,
who will not be under the guidance and restraint of religion and
reason, ought to be whipped and bridled, to be rebuked severely, and
made to smart for what he has done amiss, and to be restrained from
offending any more.2
4 This
verse seems to contradict the one that follows, but Solomon is
making a play upon the little word ki, here rendered “according
to”. In this verse it means “in harmony with”. To enter into
discussion with a fool within the terms of his folly is to lower
oneself to his level and to accept his outlook upon life as one
worthy of consideration.4
5
Here “according to” means “as it deserves”. Answer a fool so that
the foolishness of the proposition is revealed to those who listen
and to the fool himself. Thus he may come to realise that he is far
from wise and may seek to become so.2
6 A fool is not fit to be entrusted with any business, even
to go on an errand. He that sends a message by a careless heedless
person, one who is so full of his jests and so given to his
pleasures that he cannot apply his mind to any thing that is
serious, will find his message misunderstood, the one half of it
forgotten, the rest awkwardly delivered, and so many blunders made
about it that he might as well have cut off his legs, that is, never
have sent him. Nay, he will drink damage; it will turn much to a
man’s disgrace to make use of the service of a fool, for people will
be apt to judge of the master by his messenger.2
7 Wise
sayings, as a foolish man delivers them and applies them (in such a
manner that one may know he does not rightly understand them), lose
their excellency and usefulness, and becomes a jest. As the legs of
the lame are not equal, by reason of which their going is unseemly,
so unseemly is it for a fool to pretend to speak apophthegms, and
give advice, and for a man to talk devoutly whose conversation is a
constant contradiction to his talk and gives him the lie. His good
words raise him up, but then his bad life takes him down, and so his
legs are not equal.2
8
To tie a stone into a sling so that the missile cannot fly off when
one thong is released is not only to fail to accomplish the purpose
in hitting the mark, but also to endanger one’s own safety, since
the stone would be likely to fly round at the end of another thong
and strike some part of the body.4
To give honour to a fool is to put a sword in a madman’s hand, with
which we know not what mischief he may do, even to those that put it
into his hand.2
9
The drunkard in possession of a thorny staff or any sharp thing
would be armed and capable of doing great harm to himself and others
in his dull rage. Thus a parable told by a fool is both useless and
dangerous.2,4
10
The
great God that formed all things at first, and still governs them in
infinite wisdom, renders to every man according to his work. He
will give the recompense that is deserved by fools and
transgressors, by such as sin either through ignorance, or wilfully.2,5
11
As the dog, after he has gained ease by vomiting that which burdened
his stomach, yet goes and licks it up again, so sinners, who have
been convinced only and not converted, return to sin again,
forgetting how sick it made them. The apostle (2 Pt. 2:22) applies
this proverb to those that have known the way of righteousness but
are turned from it; but God will spue them out of his mouth, Rev.
3:16.2
12
A man who has some little sense, but is proud of it, thinks it much
more than it is. He has such a conceit of his own abilities as
makes him opinionative, dogmatical, and censorious; and all the use
he makes of his knowledge is that it puffs him up.2
The self-conceited are taught with more difficulty than the stupid.6
13
The slothful man dreads the way, the streets, the place where work
is to be done and a journey to be gone; he hates business, hates
every thing that requires care and labour. When he is pressed to be
diligent, either in his worldly affairs or in the business of
religion, this is his excuse (and a sorry excuse it is, as bad as
none), There is a lion in the way, some insuperable difficulty or
danger which he cannot pretend to grapple with.2
14
Having seen the slothful man in fear of his work, here we find him
in love with his ease; his turning from side to side shows that he
is not in need of the long hours of sleep.2,4
He does not care to get out of his bed, but seems to be hung upon
it, as the door upon the hinges. He does not care to get forward
with his business; in that he stirs to and fro a little, but to no
purpose; he is where he was.2
15
The slothful man makes various pretences for his slothfulness: That
he hides his hand in his bosom may be for fear of cold, to pretend
that something ails his hand, or that it was blistered with
yesterday’s hard work. It is common for those that will not do
their duty to pretend they cannot. He himself is the loser by his
slothfulness, for he starves himself. Those that are slothful in
religious matters will not be at the pains to feed their own souls
with the word of God, the bread of life, nor to fetch in promised
blessings by prayer, though they might have them for the fetching.2
16
One reason why the sluggard is more sure of himself and his wisdom
than all the men of understanding is that he is too lazy to think
things out for himself. He is satisfied with preconceived opinions
and adopts any view that comes to his ears as long as it suits his
fancy. The kind of men who can “render a reason” have pondered
problems long enough to be aware that there are several sides to
many questions. They avoid the dogmatic ignorance of the
unthinking.4
17
As either holding a dog by the ears or letting him go involves
danger, so involvement in another man's strife or failure involves a
useless risk of reputation, does no good, and may do us harm.6
18 The
malicious deceitful man is compared to a madman; he does in effect
cast fire-brands, arrows, and death; he does more mischief than he
can imagine. Fraud and falsehood burn like fire-brands, kill, even
at a distance, like arrows.2
19
How many hearts
have been made sad, and how many reputations have been slain, by
this kind of sport! "I designed no harm by what I said;"It was only
in jest". Sportive as such persons may think their conduct to be, it
is as ruinous as that of the mad man who shoots arrows, throws
firebrands, and projects in all directions instruments of death, so
that some are wounded, some burnt, and some slain.3
20
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.3
21
We must not associate with contentious men who are apt to put the
worst constructions upon everything, pick quarrels upon the least
occasion, insinuate base characters, reveal secrets, misrepresent
words and actions, do what they can to make relations, friends, and
neighbours, jealous one of another to alienate them one from
another, and sow discord among them. By not giving ear to the
contentious man strife will as surely cease, as the fire will go out
when it has no fuel.2
22 The words of a tale-bearer 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.2
23
Ill words and ill-will are similar to a potsherd and the dross of
silver, which has no real value, although sometimes they make a shew
of it, as dross does of silver.2,5
Smooth
lips that flatter and make great professions of friendship are like
a silver coating to rude earthenware, and even the outside is not
pure.3,6
24 He that hates his neighbour, and is contriving to do him a
mischief, yet dissembles with his lips, professes to have a respect
for him and to be ready to serve him, talks kindly with him, that
his malice may not be suspected and guarded against, and so he may
have the fairer opportunity to execute the purposes of it, this man
lays up deceit within him, that is, he keeps in his mind the
mischief he intends to do his neighbour till he catches him at an
advantage.2
25
We are here cautioned not to be so foolish as to suffer ourselves to
be imposed upon by the pretensions of friendship. Remember to
distrust when a man speaks fair; be not too forward to believe him
unless you know him well, for it is possible there may be seven
abominations in his heart, a great many projects of mischief against
you, which he is labouring so industriously to conceal with his fair
speech.2
26
He whose hatred is covered by deceit will one time or other be
discovered, and his wickedness shown, to his shame and confusion,
before the whole congregation.2
This may lead to trial before the assembly of the nation, or
retribution.3,5
27 What pains men take to do mischief to others? As they put
a force upon themselves by concealing their design with a profession
of friendship, so they put themselves to a great deal of labour to
bring it about; it is digging a pit, it is rolling a stone, hard
work. They shall themselves fall into the pit they digged, and the
stone they rolled will return upon them, as in the case of Haman who
was hanged on a gallows of his own preparing (Esther 7:9,10).2
28 The mischief of a slandering lie is open and obvious; it
afflicts, it hates, and everybody sees it. Men guard against it as
well as they can. However a flattering lie secretly works the ruin
of those it is spoken to. It is little suspected, and men betray
themselves by being credulous of their own praises and the
compliments that are passed upon them. A wise man therefore will be
more afraid of a flatterer that kisses and kills than of a slanderer
that proclaims war.2
References and notes
1. King James Authorized Version
2. The
Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on the Bible - http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentarie
3. Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary - www.godrules.net/library/clarke/clarke.htm
4. Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary Vol.
3 pgs.
1037-1039
5.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible
-
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871). Commentary by A. R. FAUSSETT
- http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries
6. John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible
-
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries
7. PROVERBS: THAT MEN MAY KNOW WISDOM by Ray C.
Stedman -
http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/adventure/0220.html
8.
Some Fools in Proverbs
by
Jason Jackson
http://www.christiancourier.com/penpoints/proverbsFools.htm
9.
To Sheol and Back: Looking at
Wisdom Literature Through the Eyes of
Lament -
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/4991/lament.html
10. Humor in the Hebrew
Bible by Hershey
H. Friedman, Ph.D.
-
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/bibhumor.htm
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Cults 
Why Did God Permit Sin?
