The legs of the lame hang loose; so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
A fool can repeat a wise saying, but he cannot walk in it. Older translations read "the legs of the lame are not equal," so commentators use both pictures: a saying that dangles, and an argument that limps.
A proverb does not work by itself. Using it well takes wisdom, and that is what the fool lacks.
A parable is a wise saying, but it demands wisdom in its application. In the mouth of a fool, it is as incongruous as a cripple's legs which hang about or do not match.
Later in the same chapter the picture changes:
Again, a sharp, wise saying — a proverb in the mouth of a senseless man — is like a thorn that goes into a drunkard's hand. Instead of instructing others, it torments himself to no profit.
The word does not mean someone slow or uneducated. Scripture itself defines it.
We do well to understand who it is that God calls a fool. Psalm 14:1 tells us, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Scripture also calls a fool the man who questions the truth of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:35-36). More than this, God called the rich man a fool — the man who piled up so much wealth that he thought he could live in luxury for many years (Luke 12:16-21). In each case, the one who leaves God out of his life deserves that ugly title, "fool"! Such a man will always despise true wisdom, so it is hopeless to expect any proper response from him.
Read as "legs that are not equal," the verse warns about an argument built on a comparison that limps. One writer traces this in the story of the woman of Tekoa and King David.
A parable should re-present exactly what it is meant to teach. But clever twisting can use a parable to lead to a completely false conclusion. A fool will use comparisons that are not equal, not parallel at all. His whole argument is then lame, because it is not balanced. Joab hired the wise woman of Tekoa, and she used clever, worldly wisdom to put a case before David. Her case was in some measure like that of his son Absalom, but not parallel at all: in fact completely at odds on basic points. David allowed himself to be deceived by it. This was plain dishonesty, the kind of thing an unbeliever will fall back on to get his own way, the resource of one who in God's eyes is a fool. David ought to have seen easily that these legs were not equal (2 Sam. 14). No believer should be taken in by such things.
The same limp shows up in how people handle the Bible. One writer saw it in those who say eternal life lasts for ever, but deny that punishment does:
Truly the legs of the lame are not equal. What a pitiful sight — people receiving the word of God when it suits them, and refusing it when it does not suit them.
The same test applies to our own service. One writer measures King Hezekiah by it.
To resist evil and bring in good shows the possession of divine power; it is not one-sided. Where there is only conviction or persuasion, and not divine power, there will always be marked imperfection. "The legs of the lame are not equal." There may be a great effort to resist the enemy, but no matching effort to recover the truth. On the other hand, there may be an open desire to recover the truth alongside a tampering with what is hostile to it. There may be a cry to put down vice without any regard for the testimony of God. Or there may be a going along with what is really opposed to Christ while professing His name. Hezekiah is not of this order; he is not lame.
One writer applies the proverb to the way we talk about our own walk with God.
It is not that you have to go around announcing that you are heavenly. Those who do so usually illustrate the proverb, "The legs of the lame are not equal" (Prov. 26:7). The person who is enjoying what is heavenly always feels most deeply in his soul how little he shows this truth in his life. The nearer we are to the Lord, the less we are in our own eyes. But the further away from the Lord we are, the bigger we become in our own eyes.
- Saying. A proverb is a wise saying, but it takes wisdom to use one. The words alone carry no one.
- Speaker. A fool is not the slow man but the man who leaves God out. Truth in his mouth goes nowhere.
- Limp. His comparisons do not match, so his whole argument is lame. David himself was deceived that way by the woman of Tekoa.
- Test. Ask whether both legs match: do we take the parts of God's word that suit us and refuse the rest? Do we resist evil yet never recover the truth?
- Cure. Nearness to the Lord makes us small in our own eyes. Distance makes us large — and loud talk about a truth we do not live is the limp others see.
As a bag of gems in a stoneheap, so is he that giveth honour to a fool.
This proverb sets side by side two things that do not belong together: an act meant to display worth, and a person with no worth to display. Three questions follow. How should we translate the picture? Whom does Scripture call a fool? And who does the verse really correct?
The word is not an insult aimed at slow thinkers. One writer gathers the places where God Himself hands out the title.
It is good that we understand who it is whom God calls a fool. Psalm 14:1 tells us, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Scripture also calls a fool the man who questions the truth of resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:35-36). More than this, God called a fool the rich man who piled up so much wealth that he thought he could live in luxury for many years (Luke 12:16-21). In each case, the one who leaves God out of his life deserves that unpleasant title, "fool"! Such a man will always despise true wisdom, so that it is hopeless to expect any proper response from him.
Translations differ here. One writer gives both readings and draws the same conclusion from each.
One who has no sense is unfit for trust and incapable. So he is unworthy of honour too. He is as out of place as a bag of gems in a heap of stones. The Authorised Version reads instead: a stone bound up in a sling, a danger to those nearby.
A Bible dictionary names the Hebrew word here and prefers the second reading:
Proverbs 26:8 uses another word for sling, margemah. But a better translation may be "he who puts a precious stone in a heap of stones," as the margin shows.
Read quickly, the proverb looks like another swipe at the fool. Read carefully, it is not.
This reminds us of present-day corruptions of Christianity. But note this: the verse does not reprove the fool. It reproves the one who gives honour to the fool. So if we give honour, dignity, or any place of spiritual standing to someone who dishonours our Lord, we are in effect like precious jewels in a stone heap. It is a thoroughly unfitting match. Shall we set a common, ugly stone in a lovely setting, giving it a place among precious jewels?
Misplaced honour comes back on the one who gives it. One writer pictures a king handing out titles.
Suppose the King handed out his honours freely to unworthy men. That would bring him, as "the fountain of honour," into contempt. The throne itself would lose respect, and the nobility would become a laughing stock.
The danger also reaches the man receiving the praise. Undue honour has ruined useful workers.
It is a very serious thing to attach undue importance or give an undue place to men, however much the Lord may use them in His work. We have seen the work spoiled and workmen morally ruined by this very thing. It is a fatal mistake. This mistake takes men out of the place in which God has put them. People praise them, treat them as celebrities, and stare at them as something remarkable. They write and publish their lives before they die. This lifts them into a completely false position, like a person walking on stilts. Then some terrible fall comes, to bring them to their senses and call them back to their true place.
- Fool defined. The fool is not the unintelligent man. He is the man who leaves God out — who says in his heart there is no God, and who will always despise true wisdom.
- Honour misplaced. Honour fits him as little as a gem fits a heap of rubble. He is unfit for trust. On the other reading, he is as dangerous as a stone tied into a sling.
- The giver is the target. The proverb does not scold the fool. It scolds the person handing out the honour — above all when we give spiritual standing to someone who dishonours the Lord.
- The giver is cheapened. A king who hands out honours to unworthy men brings his own throne into contempt and makes his titles a joke.
- The honoured man is endangered. Praise a man beyond his place and you set him on stilts. The fall that follows puts him back where God had him.
[As] a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
This proverb puts a wise saying in the wrong hands. Picture a thorn in the hand of a man too dulled by drink to feel it or pull it out. That is what happens when a fool carries a proverb on his lips.
The saying itself is sharp and true. But in this mouth it teaches no one. It only wounds the man who says it.
Again, a pointedly wise saying, a proverb in the mouth of the senseless, is like a thorn going up into a drunkard's hand. Instead of instructing others, it torments himself to no profit.
Of all the appetites a man can give in to, this one brings the most shame. It also dulls him more than the rest.
Of all the lusts of the flesh, none from first to last exposes a person so much to shame and grief as intoxication. Others may be fatally ruinous to us or to our partners. But this one is more stupefying and more senseless. It leads to both folly and violence… Drinking without restraint always seeks more and stronger stimulants, until the thirst for them becomes overpowering.
The damage in this picture does not land on the listeners. It lands on the fool himself. That should change how we treat people who handle holy words badly.
A parable can be dangerous when used by a fool. We have already seen feet cut off and lame legs (verses 6, 7), and now the hand damaged. It is clearly the fool's own hand. He is a kind of drunkard, drunk with pride in the clever use of his tongue. The thorn badly damages his own hand, that is, his work. And "thorn" is the very word Scripture uses for sin. He is sinning against his own soul by such misuse of a parable. He is the same type of person as "those who oppose themselves," spoken of in 2 Timothy 2:25… We shall have a more balanced, godly attitude in meeting them if we remember they are harming themselves even more than others.
Grant quotes an older wording of 2 Timothy 2:25, "those who oppose themselves," where the ESV reads "correcting his opponents with gentleness." His point rests on the older phrase: such men work against themselves.
The fool is not inventing anything. He repeats a saying that is wise in itself. A man can carry such words around without understanding them, and that is where the danger starts.
This is a great evil, and the children of God should know about it. Take any saying of this kind. If it is not understood, it is not only worthless. It is deeply deceiving and dangerous. It is like a faulty bow, or a badly tempered sword, useless to the man who trusts it on the day of battle. They have a stale and worn-out set of phrases at their fingertips, but their minds are empty of ideas. We cannot do without words, but we want the things the words stand for. The danger is to those who will not take the trouble to search the Scriptures in the fear of God, so that their faith rests in His power and not in the wisdom of men.
The words being quoted are God's own, so a small twist is not a small matter.
How careful we should be about quotations from Scripture! And how little careful we often are. Scripture twisted even a little out of line puts the authority of God behind a lie. And our very faith in it may then betray us to the enemy.
So what do we do when someone twists Scripture at us? The Lord Himself shows the way.
If Satan quotes Scripture wickedly or falsely, the Lord does not leave Scripture for argument. He answers in a way that is completely and at once convincing — "It is written again."
- Thorn. The saying is sound; the hand is not. A wise word in a foolish mouth teaches no one. It only torments the man holding it, to no profit.
- Drunkard. The image is chosen with care. No appetite dulls a man more than drink. Here the man is drunk on pride in his own clever tongue.
- Hand. The hand is his own work, and the thorn is the word Scripture uses for sin. He is sinning against his own soul, harming himself even more than the people he aims at.
- Emptiness. Worn-out phrases at the fingertips, with an empty mind behind them, are worse than worthless. They deceive, like a faulty bow on the day of battle. The cure is to search the Scriptures, so that faith rests in God's power and not in the wisdom of men.
- Answer. A small twist puts God's authority behind a lie. So never drop Scripture for argument. Answer as the Lord did: "It is written again."