How to Deal with the Fool
25:28 to 26:12
A proverb is a short and memorable saying designed to be our blueprint for living in the world that ADONAI has created. It is important to note that proverbs are not promises; they are generally true principles, all other things being equal.
Janus (25:28): A person with no self-control is like a city with broken-down walls (25:28 NLT). This verse is a janus, named after the Roman god of endings and beginnings, symbolized by having two faces – one looking back toward the past and one looking forward toward the future. Looking back, this proverb is connected with 25:27 by presenting a person prone to excess and a lack of self-control: Just as it’s not good to eat too much honey, it’s also not good to seek out honors for yourself. But looking forward, this proverb points to a collection of proverbs about the fool who is characterized by a lack of self-control (12:16).
Introduction (26:1-3): Verse 1 summarizes the negative of the theme: Honor is not fitting for a fool. Verse 2 functions as a comparison and a contrast with verse 1. Verse 3 is the climax to the introduction and tells us that what is fitting for the fool is a rod to his back.485
Honor is no more fitting for a fool than snow with summer or rain with harvest (26:1 Hebrew). In other words, a fool with honor is impossible. The summers in Judea are hot and dry. Harvest time is a time of no rain. Fools have no honor, or at least no honor that they deserve. Indeed, the comparison may imply that on the chance that snow came in the summer or rain at harvest, it would do great damage. After all, the only time in the Bible that rain came during harvest was through divine intervention, and when it came, it was a sign of divine judgment (First Samuel 12:17-15).
Like a fluttering sparrow or a flying swallow, an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim (26:2 NLT). The ancient Near East knew curses that took on formal and ritualistic patterns. Even some in Isra’el may have been convinced that a curse worked merely because of the power of the words. This proverb would have been reassuring to a person that undeserved curses would really have no effect.486
Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle, and a fool with a rod to his back (26:3 NLT)! The introduction now turns from what is not fitting to what is fitting. The object of the teaching is that a fool must be controlled by physical force. The point is that the fool is as difficult to manage as a horse or a donkey. Elsewhere, however, even the rod for discipline is seen to be fruitless when applied to fools. They are simply hell-bent on going in the wrong direction. By implication, then, the fool is a stupid animal. Neither the fool nor these animals respond to reason; therefore, they must be driven by the whip, the bridle, or the rod.487
Body (26:4-10): The composition’s seven-verse body consists of two partial subunits: two statements that advocate correction as fitting for the fool (verses 4-5), and five sayings, in the form of a chiasm, prohibiting honor for the fool because he is unfit (verses 6-10).
Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are (26:4 NLT)! Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools, or they will become wise in their own estimation (26:5 NLT). Looking at the opening phrase of each verse, we see that there is a direct contradiction: don’t answer versus answer. Liberal scholars see this as another example of the Bible contradicting itself. They suggest that Proverbs, gathered over many generations by men, is a mixture of wisdom sayings that reflect human wisdom, rather than godly wisdom. However, ADONAI was behind the process of inclusion of wisdom sayings in Proverbs, and the Ruach Ha’Kodesh inspired Solomon to put all his human wisdom in the context of faith and service to Ha’Shem. The Bible teaches that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (Second Timothy 3:16-17).
A shallow interpretation that only sees a contradiction here misses the subtlety of wisdom. Wisdom sayings are just part of wisdom. Experience and insight are necessary to know how and when to apply different wisdom principles. For example, Solomon says: A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like a thorny branch in the hand of a drunk (26:9 NLT).488 The wise person must discern when it is appropriate to answer fools according to their folly and when it would be harmful to do so. In this passage, Solomon shows both sides of the problem of answering a fool at all.489
When a fool boasts, says something in anger, or speaks as a know-it-all, the wise person has a choice to make. One response is to humble the boastful fool by boasting of greater qualifications. Anger from a fool could be answered with righteous anger in return. And a know-it-all might need a response that would put him to shame. Sometimes, one must answer in this way to keep the fool from thinking otherwise. Sometimes, wise people must do this either for themselves or for the sake of the fool.
Yet, the circumstances could change. If one were to respond to a fool on his own level, then one might look foolish to others. This would result in vindicating the fool in his own action. Key factors in deciding which course is wiser would include the relationship between the wise person and the fool, whether there are onlookers or not, and whether the fool in question might have any hope of learning from being humiliated.
One lesson we learn from the complexity of these wisdom principles is that we ought to be careful how we answer people. It is wise to become a student of people and learn how they might respond to us. We ought to think of justice, and also of their welfare in deciding how to answer. For like apples of gold in a silver basket is a word appropriately spoken (25:11).490
Hezekiah’s editors outlined this chiasm by exactly repeating in its inner core: A proverb in the mouth of a fool, on either side of the pivot (C). Its outer core relates to hiring the fool for a job, one of which is asking him to send a message. The pivot is also the center verse of the chiasm and its conclusion, as if shouting out the big idea: to honor a fool is unfitting.491
A. Committing important business to a fool: Trusting a fool to convey a message is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison (26:6 NLT)! Sending a message by the hand of a fool is as bizarre as chopping off one’s own feet and as deadly as drinking poison. Cutting off one’s feet suggests that the message will never be delivered. Drinking poison may suggest that the one who sent the message will be harmed due to the incompetence of the fool. One can compare this warning about foolish behavior to 10:26: Lazy people irritate their employers, like vinegar to the teeth or smoke in the eyes.492
B. A proverb in a fool’s mouth: A proverb in the mouth of a fool is as useless as a paralyzed leg (26:7 NLT). Just as a person with paralyzed legs cannot use them, so a moral proverb in the mouth of a fool carries no authority and gets him nowhere. The proverb teaches us that it is inappropriate to educate the fool by putting proverbs in his mouth. Why would a fool wish to pay for wisdom when he has no desire to learn (17:16). The proverb’s good message in the mouth of the flawed messenger falls flat on its face and makes no impact at all.
C. Honoring a fool: Honoring a fool is as foolish as tying a stone [boulder] to a sling (26:8 NLT). The pivot pokes fun at anyone who gives honor to a fool by explicitly comparing him to putting a large boulder in a sling. A sling was made of leather that had been broadened in the middle and into which a stone was placed (see the commentary on the Life of David, to see link click Al – David Kills Goliath). The person held the ends of the strip together and swung it until he let go of one of the ends so that the stone could fly against its intended target. Whoever gives honor to a fool looks as ridiculous (and is just as effective) as if he tried to sling a boulder from his sling.493
B. A proverb in a fool’s mouth: A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like a thorny branch in the hand of a drunk (26:9 NLT). We are asked how a thorny branch in the hand of a drunk is like a proverb in the mouth of a fool. As we contemplate the comparison, we conclude that it is saying something similar to 26:7. Thus, a fool may be able to learn a proverb, but won’t be able to apply it to the right circumstance. While 26:7 points out that such a situation renders the proverb ineffective, this one points out that it can actually be dangerous.494 A thorny branch in the hands of a person who doesn’t know where he is going or what he is doing is like the proverbial gun in the hands of a child. A proverb in the mouth of the wise brings healing, but in the mouth of a fool only brings destruction.
A. Committing important business to a fool: Whereas verses 7 and 9 reveal that the fool is unfit to utter any proverb, this verse shows him unfit for any kind of work. An employer who hires a fool or a bystander is like an archer who shoots at random (26:10 NLT). Both in word (verse 7) and deed (verse 9), he inflicts damage. Anyone who hires him hires one who is as crazy and dangerous as a mass terrorist.
Conclusion (26:11-12): Verse 11 ridicules the fool as being incapable of saving himself, but verse 12 speaks of the hope of his salvation. According to verses 3-5, his hope lies in physical punishment and wise answers. The catchphrase wise in his own estimation and the use of a direct address to the son in verse 5 and 12 also point to the connection between these two verses. The conclusion matches the introduction (verses 1-2) and the pivot (verse 8), and poetically by returning to negative animal images: fluttering sparrow and flying swallow (verse 2), horse and donkey (verse3), with the dog of verse 11.495
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his foolishness (26:11 ESV). One of the characteristics of fools is their unwillingness to listen to corrections. They make mistakes, but since they will not listen to criticism, they are doomed to repeat those same mistakes over and over again. For this reason, they are compared to a dog that throws up and then returns and eats its vomit. The presumption is that the dog threw up because the food it ate didn’t agree with it. In spite of that, however, the dog eats it again! Second Peter 2:22 makes use of the first colon to refer to false teachers within the early Messianic community. They knew the right way to live (2:21) but then rejected it, thus returning to their old sinful, worldly lifestyle.
There is more hope for fools than for people who think they are wise (26:12 NLT). Proverbs make it clear from the start that the only true wisdom is wisdom from God (see Ai – The Fear of ADONAI is the Beginning of Wisdom). Human beings are not inherently wise, so it is the height of arrogance to think of oneself as being wise (3:5 and 7, 27:1, 28:11 and 26). Humility, not pride, is the quality of wise people. The sad nature of this “pseudo-wisdom” is that there is less hope for such people than for a fool. Now, one may well respond that those who think they are wise in their own estimation are fools; but here, the proverb is saying they are even worse than fools. See the similar structure in the proverb found in 29:20.496
Dear heavenly Father, praise You for Your infinite perfect wisdom that allows us to know how to deal with a fool. But first, Lord, help me to know Your Word and learn how not to act foolish. Also ADONAI, please give me wisdom when dealing with a fool. Help me to act appropriately in every situation, with kindness if possible, while setting clear boundaries. Thank you for being such a wise and wonderful heavenly Father! In Messiah Yeshua’s holy Name and power of His resurrection. Amen
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