261 Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.
2 Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, an undeserved curse goes nowhere.
3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.
4 Do not answer fools according to their folly, or you will be a fool yourself. 5 Answer fools according to their folly, or they will be wise in their own eyes.
6 It is like cutting off one's foot and drinking down violence, to send a message by a fool. 7 The legs of a disabled person hang limp; so does a proverb in the mouth of a fool. 8 It is like binding a stone in a sling to give honor to a fool. 9 Like a thornbush brandished by the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
10 Like an archer who wounds everybody is one who hires a passing fool or drunkard.
11 Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who reverts to his folly.
12 Do you see persons wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for fools than for them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Proverbs 26:1-12
Commentary on Proverbs 26:1
(Read Proverbs 26:1)
Honour is out of season to those unworthy and unfit for it.
Commentary on Proverbs 26:2
(Read Proverbs 26:2)
He that is cursed without cause, the curse shall do him no more harm than the bird that flies over his head.
Commentary on Proverbs 26:3
(Read Proverbs 26:3)
Every creature must be dealt with according to its nature, but careless and profligate sinners never will be ruled by reason and persuasion. Man indeed is born like the wild ass's colt; but some, by the grace of God, are changed.
Commentary on Proverbs 26:4-5
(Read Proverbs 26:4-5)
We are to fit our remarks to the man, and address them to his conscience, so as may best end the debate.
Commentary on Proverbs 26:6-9
(Read Proverbs 26:6-9)
Fools are not fit to be trusted, nor to have any honour. Wise sayings, as a foolish man delivers and applies them, lose their usefulness.
Commentary on Proverbs 26:10
(Read Proverbs 26:10)
This verse may either declare how the Lord, the Creator of all men, will deal with sinners according to their guilt, or, how the powerful among men should disgrace and punish the wicked.
Commentary on Proverbs 26:11
(Read Proverbs 26:11)
The dog is a loathsome emblem of those sinners who return to their vices, 2 Peter 2:22.
Commentary on Proverbs 26:12
(Read Proverbs 26:12)
We see many a one who has some little sense, but is proud of it. This describes those who think their spiritual state to be good, when really it is very bad.