John Gill Commentary Proverbs 26

As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest
Which were very undesirable and unseasonable, yea, very hurtful to the fruits of the earth; and a great obstruction to the labourers in the harvest, and a hindrance to the gathering of it in; and were very rare and uncommon in Judea; it was even a miracle for thunder and rain to be in wheat harvest, (1 Samuel 12:17) ;

so honour is not seemly for a fool : for a wicked man; such should not be favoured by kings, and set in high places of honour and trust; "folly set in great dignity", or foolish and bad men set in honourable places, are as unsuitable and inconvenient as snow and rain in summer and harvest, and should be as rare as they; and they are as hurtful and pernicious, since they discourage virtue and encourage vice, and hinder the prosperity of the commonwealth; such vile persons are contemned in the eyes of good men, and are disregarded of God; he will not give them glory here nor hereafter; the wise shall inherit it, but shame shall be the promotion of fools, (Proverbs 3:35) ; see (Ecclesiastes 10:6) .

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying
As a bird, particularly the sparrow, as the word ^F8 is sometimes rendered, leaves its nest and wanders from it; and flies here and there, and settles nowhere; and as the swallow flies to the place from where it came; or the wild pigeon, as some ^F9 think is meant, which flies away very swiftly: the swallow has its name in Hebrew from liberty, because it flies about boldly and freely, and makes its nest in houses, to which it goes and comes without fear; so the curse causeless shall not come ;

The mouths of fools or wicked men are full of cursing and bitterness, and especially such who are advanced above others, and are set in high places; who think they have a right to swear at and curse those below them, and by this means to support their authority and power; but what signify their curses which are without a cause? they are vain and fruitless, like Shimei's cursing David; they fly away, as the above birds are said to do, and fly over the heads of those on whom they are designed to light; yea, return and fall upon the heads of those that curse, as the swallow goes to the place from where it came; it being a bird of passage, (Jeremiah 8:7) ; in the winter it flies away and betakes itself to some islands on rocks called from thence "chelidonian" ^F11 .

According to the "Keri", or marginal reading, for here is a double reading, it may be rendered, "so the curse causeless shall come to him" ^F12 ; that gives it without any reason. The Septuagint takes in both, ``so a vain curse shall not come upon any;'' what are all the anathemas of the church of Rome? who can curse whom God has not cursed? yea, such shall be cursed themselves; see (Psalms 109:17) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: (rwpuk) "sicat passeris", Mercerus, Gejerus; "ut passer", Piscator; Schultens.
• F9: Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 1. c. 8.
• F11: Vid. Strabo. Geograph. l. 14. p. 458. Dionys. Perieg. v. 506, 507.
• F12: (wl) "in quempiam", V. L.

A whip for the horse
One that is dull of going, or refractory and needs breaking; a bridle for the ass ;
not to curb and restrain it from going too fast, asses being generally dull; but to direct its way and turn it when necessary, it being stiff-necked and obstinate; though the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it a "spear" or "goad", something to prick with, and excite it to motion; and so the Targum; or otherwise one would have thought the whip was fitter for the ass and the bridle for the horse.

and a rod for the fool's back ;
suggesting that the fool, or wicked man, is like the horse or the mule; though not without understanding of things natural, yet of things divine and moral; and as stupid as the ass, however wise he may conceit himself to be, being born like a wild ass's colt; and instead of honour being given him, stripes should be laid upon him; he should be reproved sharply, and corrected for his wickedness, especially the causeless curser, (Proverbs 19:29) .

Answer not a fool according to his folly Sometimes a fool, or wicked man, is not to be answered at all; as the ministers of Hezekiah answered not a word to Rabshakeh; nor Jeremiah the prophet to Hananiah; nor Christ to the Scribes and Pharisees; and when an answer is returned, it should not be in his foolish way and manner, rendering evil for evil, and railing for railing, in the same virulent, lying, calumniating, and reproachful language;

lest you also be like to him ; lest you also, who are a man of understanding and sense, and have passed for one among men, come under the same imputation, and be reckoned a fool like him.

Answer a fool according to his folly
The Targum is, ``but speak with a fool in your wisdom;'' and the Syriac version, ``yea, speak with a fool according to your wisdom;'' which would at once remove the seeming contradiction in these words to the former, but then they are not a true version; indeed it is right, and must be the sense, that when a fool is answered, as it is sometimes necessary he should, that it be done in wisdom, and so as to expose his folly; he is to be answered and not answered according to different times, places, and circumstances, and manner of answering; he is to be answered when there is any hope of doing him good, or of doing good to others; or of preventing ill impressions being made upon others by what he has said; when the glory of God, the good of the church, and the cause of truth, require it; and when he would otherwise glory and triumph, as if his words or works were unanswerable, as follow;

lest he be wise in his own conceit ;
which fools are apt to be, and the rather when no answer is given them; imagining it arises from the strength of their arguments, and their nervous way of reasoning, when it is rather from a neglect and contempt of them.