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 As snow in summer, and rain in harvest, so glory is not seemly for a fool. 2 As a bird flying to other places, and a sparrow going here or there: so a curse uttered without cause shall come upon a man. 3 A whip for a horse, and a snaffle for an ass, and a rod for the back of fools. 4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be made like him. 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he imagine himself to be wise. 6 He that sendeth words by a foolish messenger, is lame of feet and drinketh iniquity. 7 As a lame man hath fair legs in vain: so a parable is unseemly in the mouth of fools. 8 As he that casteth a stone into the heap of Mercury: so is he that giveth honour to a fool. 9 As if a thorn should grow in the hand of a drunkard: so is a parable in the mouth of fools. 10 Judgment determineth causes: and he that putteth a fool to silence, appeaseth anger. 11 As a dog that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly. 12 Hast thou seen a man wise in his own conceit? there shall be more hope of a fool than of him. 13 The slothful man saith: There is a lion in the way, and a lioness in the roads. 14 As the door turneth upon its hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. 15 The slothful hideth his hand under his armpit, and it grieveth him to turn it to his mouth. 16 The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that speak sentences. 17 As he that taketh a dog by the ears, so is he that passeth by in anger, and meddleth with another man’s quarrel. 18 As he is guilty that shooteth arrows, and lances unto death: 19 So is the man that hurteth his friend deceitfully: and when he is taken, saith: I did it in jest. 20 When the wood faileth, the fire shall go out: and when the talebearer is taken away, contentions shall cease. 21 As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire, so an angry man stirreth up strife. 22 The words of a talebearer are as it were simple, but they reach to the innermost parts of the belly. 23 Swelling lips joined with a corrupt heart, are like an earthen vessel adorned with silver dross. 24 An enemy is known by his lips, when in his heart he entertaineth deceit. 25 When he shall speak low, trust him not: because there are seven mischiefs in his heart. 26 He that covereth hatred deceitfully, his malice shall be laid open in the public assembly. 27 He that diggeth a pit, shall fall into it: and he that rolleth a stone, it shall return to him. 28 A deceitful tongue loveth not truth: and a slippery mouth worketh ruin.

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