Proverbs 26

اقرأ هذا الفصل بقصد

Proverbs 26 is a portrait gallery of people not to become. Verses 1 to 12 describe the fool in a string of similes: honor on him is like snow in summer, a proverb in his mouth hangs like a lame man's legs, and, in the line everyone remembers, he returns to his folly as a dog returns to its vomit. Verses 13 to 16 mock the sluggard, who imagines a lion in the road and turns on his bed like a door on its hinges. Verses 17 to 28 turn to the troublemaker: the meddler who grabs a dog by the ears, the prankster who says "I was only joking," the gossip whose words go down like choice morsels, and the flatterer whose smooth speech hides seven abominations.

فتح تفسير الإصحاح

Proverbs 26 is the funniest chapter in the Bible and one of the sharpest. It is built almost entirely out of comparisons, and the comparisons are unforgettable: snow in summer, a stone tied into a sling, a thorn in a drunkard's hand, a dog grabbed by the ears, a door turning on its hinges, a man too lazy to lift his hand from the dish to his mouth. The first twelve verses are about the fool, and they are less interested in defining him than in showing how everything goes wrong around him. Give him honor and it does not fit; send a message by him and you might as well cut off your own feet; put a proverb in his mouth and it hangs there useless. In the middle sit two verses that say opposite things back to back, do not answer a fool according to his folly, answer a fool according to his folly, and the book leaves them there on purpose, because knowing which one applies is what wisdom is. The sluggard gets four verses, each more absurd than the last, ending with the observation that he thinks himself wiser than seven sensible men. Then the chapter turns to the people who make life miserable for others: meddlers, pranksters who hurt people and call it a joke, gossips, quarrelers who keep the fire going, and, most dangerous of all, the person who speaks graciously while storing up hatred. The last verse could stand as a summary of the whole collection: a lying tongue hates the people it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.

مقاطع رئيسية

Proverbs 26:4-5 Proverbs 26:11-12 Proverbs 26:13-16 Proverbs 26:20-22 Proverbs 25:1 2 Peter 2:22

Historical and literary context

The chapter belongs to the second Solomonic collection, which 25:1 says was copied out by the men of King Hezekiah of Judah around 700 BC. That places its editing in a period of religious reform and literary activity, when the court gathered older sayings for the training of officials. The proverbs assume a small-town world of shared roads, neighbors' quarrels, hired labor, and messengers sent by hand. Egyptian and Mesopotamian wisdom texts have close parallels to the sayings on the fool and the sluggard, and the form here, an image in the first half of the line and its application in the second, is the standard pattern of the comparative proverb.

How the chapter unfolds

Verses 1 to 12 form a unit on the fool, framed by "honor" in verse 1 and the man "wise in his own eyes" in verse 12, with the famous contradictory pair of verses 4 and 5 near its center. Verses 13 to 16 are four sayings on the sluggard, climaxing in his estimate of himself as wiser than seven wise men. Verses 17 to 19 warn against meddling and dangerous jokes. Verses 20 to 22 treat gossip and quarrelling as fuel for fire. Verses 23 to 26 describe the hateful man whose speech is a glaze over cheap clay. Verses 27 and 28 close with the pit that swallows its digger and the lying tongue.

Why this chapter matters

Verses 4 and 5 are the most famous pair in Proverbs and the clearest lesson in how the book works: wisdom is not a rule but a judgment about which rule fits the moment. Ancient rabbis debated whether the contradiction disqualified the book and concluded that both sayings are true in different situations. Verse 11 was quoted by Peter, in 2 Peter 2:22, for people who return to old ways. Verse 12 makes self-assurance a worse condition than folly, a theme that runs through the whole book. Verse 20, "without gossip, a conflict ceases," is the standard biblical text against gossip.

Interpretive tension to watch

The tension the chapter announces in verses 4 and 5 it never resolves, and that is the point: the reader must decide when answering a fool makes you like him and when silence lets him think he has won. Verse 2 promises that an undeserved curse does not land, and verse 27 that the pit catches its digger, but the rest of Proverbs, and books like Job, know that this does not always happen quickly. The sayings describe how the world tends to go, not a guarantee of how it will go in every case.

أسئلة لهذا الفصل

Verses 4 and 5 give opposite advice about answering a fool. How do you decide which applies in a given conversation?
The sluggard invents a lion in the road. What excuses serve that purpose today?
Verse 22 says gossip goes down like choice morsels. Why is it so hard to refuse?

Study with context

Use this as a chapter guide, then press deeper into the text itself. The goal is to slow down observation, notice structure, and ask better questions before jumping to conclusions.

أضف للملاحظات

1 夏天落雪，收割时下雨，都不相宜；愚昧人得尊荣也是如此。 2 麻雀往来，燕子翻飞；这样，无故的咒诅也必不临到。 3 鞭子是为打马，辔头是为勒驴；刑杖是为打愚昧人的背。 4 不要照愚昧人的愚妄话回答他，恐怕你与他一样。 5 要照愚昧人的愚妄话回答他，免得他自以为有智慧。 6 借愚昧人手寄信的，是砍断[自己的]脚，自受损害。 7 瘸子的脚空存无用；箴言在愚昧人的口中也是如此。 8 将尊荣给愚昧人的，好像人把石子包在机弦里。 9 箴言在愚昧人的口中，好像荆棘刺入醉汉的手。 10 雇愚昧人的，与雇过路人的，就像射伤众人的弓箭手。 11 愚昧人行愚妄事，行了又行，就如狗转过来吃它所吐的。 12 你见自以为有智慧的人吗？愚昧人比他更有指望。 13 懒惰人说：道上有猛狮，街上有壮狮。 14 门在枢纽转动，懒惰人在床上也是如此。 15 懒惰人放手在盘子里，就是向口撤回也以为劳乏。 16 懒惰人看自己比七个善于应对的人更有智慧。 17 过路被事激动，管理不干己的争竞，好像人揪住狗耳。 18 人欺凌邻舍，却说：我岂不是戏耍吗？他就像疯狂的人抛掷火把、利箭，与杀人的兵器。 20 火缺了柴就必熄灭；无人传舌，争竞便止息。 21 好争竞的人煽惑争端，就如余火加炭，火上加柴一样。 22 传舌人的言语，如同美食，深入人的心腹。 23 火热的嘴，奸恶的心，好像银渣包的瓦器。 24 怨恨人的，用嘴粉饰，心里却藏着诡诈； 25 他用甜言蜜语，你不可信他，因为他心中有七样可憎恶的。 26 他虽用诡诈遮掩自己的怨恨，他的邪恶必在会中显露。 27 挖陷坑的，自己必掉在其中；滚石头的，石头必反滚在他身上。 28 虚谎的舌恨他所压伤的人；谄媚的口败坏人的事。