Pro 26:1-12 | KingComments | STEP | The fool, of whom speak, is not someone who is spiritually disturbed, but a rebellious person who denies God and has no interest in becoming wise. He is blind to his folly and does not seek deliverance from it. The fear of the LORD does not interest him at all. To “a fool” does not fit “honor”, just as “snow in summer and rain in harvest time” do not fit together. They simply do not belong together. A fool should not find recognition, should not be clothed with authority, should not be given a position of influence. If he were given honor, it would not change him, for he is and remains a fool in his thinking, speaking and acting. Not only does it violate the laws of nature, like snow in summer is not fitting, but it also harms what serves for food, like rain in harvest. One of the evils Solomon saw was “the fool” being “placed on great heights” ( ).

‏ Proverbs 26:1-12

Honor Is Not Fitting For a Fool

The fool, of whom Pro 26:1-12 speak, is not someone who is spiritually disturbed, but a rebellious person who denies God and has no interest in becoming wise. He is blind to his folly and does not seek deliverance from it. The fear of the LORD does not interest him at all.

To “a fool” does not fit “honor”, just as “snow in summer and rain in harvest time” do not fit together. They simply do not belong together. A fool should not find recognition, should not be clothed with authority, should not be given a position of influence. If he were given honor, it would not change him, for he is and remains a fool in his thinking, speaking and acting.

Not only does it violate the laws of nature, like snow in summer is not fitting, but it also harms what serves for food, like rain in harvest. One of the evils Solomon saw was “the fool” being “placed on great heights” (Ecc 10:6).

A Curse Without Cause Does Not Alight

The flitting of “a sparrow” and the flying of “a swallow” is unpredictable and happens without any destination. Nor are they catchable. It is useless to try to do so. So it is with a curse that a fool utters for no reason. It has no effect.

Only fools utter such curses. The foolish Saul uttered a curse that did not alight (1Sam 14:28 ; 45). The foolish Goliath “cursed David by his gods” (1Sam 17:43-44) and then was made a head shorter. Simei cursed David and was punished for it (2Sam 16:5-14; 1Kgs 2:8). The curses pronounced on Jeremiah by his enemies also dissolved into nothingness (Jer 15:10b).

It is fitting for the Old Testament believer to ask God for the wicked who harms him: “He also loved cursing, so it came to him” (Psa 109:17). When we, New Testament believers, have to deal with people who curse us, who wish evil upon us, we may respond in the way that the Lord Jesus tells us: “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Lk 6:28).

A Fool Is Like a Mule Without Understanding

“Fools” are as difficult to urge and control as “the horse” and “the donkey”. Neither fools, nor these animals, respond to words. The animals must be driven by “a whip” and “a bridle” (cf. Jam 3:3 ; 7-8; Psa 32:8-9). The fool must be called to order by the rod because he cannot be appealed to his reason. He must not be given authority, but authority must be exercised over him. The comparison with the animals mentioned makes it clear that the fool has lost his human dignity and must be treated in the same way.

We can apply this spiritually to “empty talkers and deceivers” (Tit 1:10), whom we can see as fools. Strict action must be taken against them: he “must be silenced” (Tit 1:11). We can consider that strict action against them as the use of the rod.

When Should We Answer or Not Answer a Fool

After an instruction in Pro 26:3 on how to deal with the fool, an instruction on how to speak to the fool follows in Pro 26:4-5. The two verses are very similar and at first glance seem to contradict each other. But what appears to be a contradiction turns out to be perfection on closer inspection. It comes down to close reading.

In Pro 26:4 the instruction is “noy to answer a fool according to his folly”. The second line of verse explains why that should not be done. The issue here is the consequence for him who would answer. If you answer him, you will be like him. If you answer him, you become a fool yourself. This happens when you descend in your answer to his level of thinking. Therefore, you should not do that. Do not lower yourself to the level of the fool by answering his foolish question and arguing with him as if he were a wise man.

We can apply this instruction to what Paul preaches to Timothy: “But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels” (2Tim 2:23). We are not to respond to foolish and incongruous contentious questions, or else we will cooperate in producing quarrels.

In Pro 26:5, the instruction is to answer “a fool as his folly [deserves]”. The second line of verse explains why this should be done. The issue here is the consequence for the fool. He who punishes a fool discourages him from thinking highly of himself.

The purpose of putting these two verses together is to show that human problems are often complicated and cannot always be solved by appealing to a single rule. It depends on the situation. In one case, one should not lower oneself to the level of a fool, for then one joins the circle of fools. In the other case, one should, for then the fool is put in his place.

Paul, of necessity, spoke once as an unwise, that is, as a fool. That was to correct the Corinthians, who were wise in their own eyes (2Cor 11:16-17 ; 2Cor 12:11). The prophet Micah did both the one and the other toward Ahab (1Kgs 22:15 ; 17). If there is grace in our heart and also the will to take nothing away from God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will let us know how to answer everyone (Col 4:6).

A preacher once answered a fool according to his folly. When he was asked a foolish, unanswerable question, he replied: ‘You can find the answer in the second chapter of the letter of Jude’.

Another comment that may help understand these two verses is found in the Jewish Talmud. The Talmud contains the commentaries of the main rabbis and other scholars on the Tenach, that is the Old Testament. It states that Pro 26:4 presumably refers to foolish commentaries that one should ignore and Pro 26:5 refers to a misrepresentation that one should correct.

To Cut Off Feet – Lamed Legs

He who uses a fool as a messenger causes himself great trouble (Pro 26:6; cf. Pro 25:13). In the first place, it is equivalent to cutting off his own feet. Sending a messenger is like having another pair of feet. The feet of the messenger are the feet of the sender. Nothing comes of the message with which the fool is sent on a mission. He does not arrive at the address or he delivers the wrong message.

The consequences are that the sender has to deal with the violence of the addressee. The addressee has not received the message he was waiting for or he has received it mutilated, causing him to draw wrong conclusions. That damages existing good relationships. The lesson is that it is better not to send a message than to use a fool.

We can apply this to religious organizations that use unbelievers to spread the message of the gospel through them. Those organizations see themselves as a business to be run by skilled ‘businessmen’ who are good at selling a message, in this case the gospel. The annual spectacle called The Passion, a God-dishonoring display of the suffering and crucifixion of Christ, is a case in point. DC’s (Dutch Celebrities) are hired to sell the ‘product’ as successfully as possible. The effect is that nothing is left of the gospel and it damages the testimony of the biblical gospel.

Pro 26:7 complements Pro 26:6. A paralytic has legs, but they are useless to him because he cannot use them. He cannot move a step with them. Thus, a fool can utter a proverb, but he does not know what it means. The proverb hangs there as limp as the legs of a cripple; it is without power in his mouth. Such is the case with all those wicked fools – people who don’t want to know anything about the fear of the LORD – hired to play in The Passion. They parrot the Bible, but they don’t know what they are saying.

Dangerous and Painful

“One who binds a stone in a sling” (Pro 26:8) shows that he has no understanding of a sling. A stone should not be bound in a sling, but laid loose in it. If the stone is bound in a sling, you can spin the sling all you want, but the stone will not fly out. When it comes down to it, it can be life-threatening because the defensive weapon does not work by misuse. David would have been killed by Goliath if he had bound his stone in his sling. Because he had put the stone loose in the sling, he killed Goliath with it.

So someone “who gives honor to a fool” has no understanding of a fool. A fool cannot handle responsibility. He does not know what he is doing. He who gives a fool a position of responsibility will suffer the consequences to his own detriment.

A drunkard is unable to think soberly (Pro 26:9). Nor can he go a steady course. He utters gibberish and staggers down the street. In his drunken state, he randomly grabs a thorn bush, causing the thorn to penetrate his hand. Because he is drunk, he does not notice it. The thorn is a symbol of sin; after the Fall, thorns came (Gen 3:18). The hand is a symbol of working, of doing something. Thus, sin clings to everything he does, even though he doesn’t notice it.

This picture applies to fools who take “a proverb” in his “mouth”. As a drunkard is without feeling for the thorn in his hand, so are fools without understanding for the proverb they take into their mouth. They are darkened in their understanding, but they think they can say wise words. A fool can read or speak a proverb, but is mentally and spiritually incapable of understanding it. He will misuse and misapply it.

People who do not have a living relationship with God through faith in the Lord Jesus can quote sayings from God’s Word, but sin clings to what they say. This is especially true of liberal theologians who read texts from God’s Word and then add their own sinful explanation to them.

What a Fool Does, Causes Wounds

This verse is difficult to translate because the different Hebrew words have very different meanings. The most likely translation is the one given here, which is also in a similar wording in a footnote in the Darby Translation: “As an archer that wounds all, so is he that hires the fool and hires passers-by.” The general meaning is that undisciplined mercenaries have the same effect as the random shooting of an archer.

Hiring “a fool” or “those who pass by” shows the folly of the one who does so. One who hires such people is compared to an archer who shoots arrows at random, which can hit and injure anyone. “A fool” is just as unreliable an employee as a random “passerby” whose laziness you also do not know. Anyone who hires, i.e. employs, a fool or a passerby, thereby gives them the opportunity to cause great harm.

A Fool Who Repeats His Folly

“A dog” that “returns to his vomit” to eat again what it once regurgitated is quite a disgusting image. At the same time, it is a very powerful image of “a fool who repeats his folly”. A fool never learns. No matter how many negative experiences he may have and how many times he may have said he will break with his folly, he always returns to his life in sinful folly.

Peter quotes this verse in his second letter (2Pet 2:21-22). He uses this proverb because it truthfully portrays what happens when a person has professed the Christian faith and then returns to the world. A dog is an unclean animal that voraciously and shamelessly feeds on whatever it finds or gets (cf. Isa 56:11). A dog is never satisfied. When it has eaten too much, it vomits it up. If it gets hungry again, it eats its own vomit.

This image applies to people who first bid farewell to the world, but, spurred on by teachers of error, returned to it. They had found no inner satisfaction in the world and had left it. Now they return to it anyway. This shows that inwardly they have not really changed. The dog has remained a dog.

A Man Wise in His Own Eyes

There is someone even worse than a fool and that is a man who is wise in his own eyes. In fact, self-conceit is part of the foolishness described in this book. A snooty ignoramus is the greatest fool of all. Arrogant self-assertion and an imagined sense of superiority place a person beyond the reach of any help or correction. The prophet Isaiah says to such people, “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!” (Isa 5:21). All that remains for them is a “woe”, a judgment without end.

We are “not to think more highly” of ourselves than we “ought to think” (Rom 12:3; Gal 6:3). We are also told: “Do not be wise in your own estimation” (Rom 12:16).