Proverbs 26

この章を意図をもって読む

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.

章の解説を開く

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.

主要な箇所

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.

この章のための質問

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.

ノートに追加

1 Like snow in summer and rain when the grain is being cut, so honour is not natural for the foolish. 2 As the sparrow in her wandering and the swallow in her flight, so the curse does not come without a cause. 3 A whip for the horse, a mouth-bit for the ass, and a rod for the back of the foolish. 4 Do not give to the foolish man a foolish answer, or you will be like him. 5 Give a foolish man a foolish answer, or he will seem wise to himself. 6 He who sends news by the hand of a foolish man is cutting off his feet and drinking in damage. 7 The legs of one who has no power of walking are hanging loose; so is a wise saying in the mouth of the foolish. 8 Giving honour to a foolish man is like attempting to keep a stone fixed in a cord. 9 Like a thorn which goes up into the hand of a man overcome by drink, so is a wise saying in the mouth of a foolish man. 10 Like an archer wounding all who go by, is a foolish man overcome by drink. 11 Like a dog going back to the food which he has not been able to keep down, is the foolish man doing his foolish acts over again. 12 Have you seen a man who seems to himself to be wise? There is more hope for the foolish than for him. 13 The hater of work says, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets. 14 A door is turned on its pillar, and the hater of work on his bed. 15 The hater of work puts his hand deep into the basin: lifting it again to his mouth is a weariness to him. 16 The hater of work seems to himself wiser than seven men who are able to give an answer with good sense. 17 He who gets mixed up in a fight which is not his business, is like one who takes a dog by the ears while it is going by. 18 As one who is off his head sends about flaming sticks and arrows of death, 19 So is the man who gets the better of his neighbour by deceit, and says, Am I not doing so in sport? 20 Without wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no secret talk, argument is ended. 21 Like breath on coals and wood on fire, so a man given to argument gets a fight started. 22 The words of one who says evil of his neighbour secretly are like sweet food, they go down into the inner parts of the stomach. 23 Smooth lips and an evil heart are like a vessel of earth plated with silver waste. 24 With his lips the hater makes things seem what they are not, but deceit is stored up inside him; 25 When he says fair words, have no belief in him; for in his heart are seven evils: 26 Though his hate is covered with deceit, his sin will be seen openly before the meeting of the people. 27 He who makes a hole in the earth will himself go falling into it: and on him by whom a stone is rolled the stone will come back again. 28 A false tongue has hate for those who have clean hearts, and a smooth mouth is a cause of falling.

読むことを本当の学びに変える

登録すると、聖句のブックマーク、ノート作成、AIツールでの学びができます。

新規登録ログイン

この章の後の次のステップを選ぶ読み続けるか、プランを選ぶか、AIで学習を続けてください。

次の章を読む Proverbs 27 in Bible in Basic English.

読書プラン

この章を繰り返し可能な習慣にしたい場合は、プランを選んでください。

この章についてAIに聞く

テキストが疑問を提起したり、一度の読書よりも深く迫る場合は、AI学習を続けてください。

この章が開くテーマを追うこの章が開いたより大きな疑問に関連するトピックハブ。

すべてのトピックを閲覧