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Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble Is like a bad tooth, or a lame foot.
Verse Takeaways
1
Useless in a Crisis
Commentators emphasize that the primary point of the simile is utter uselessness. Relying on an unfaithful person during trouble is like trying to chew with a broken tooth or walk on a dislocated foot. As scholar Albert Barnes notes, the focus is less on the pain and more on the complete inability of the person to provide the help you need. They are not just unreliable; they are completely ineffective.
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3
18th Century
Presbyterian
Emphasis should be placed on the uselessness of the “broken tooth” and the “foot out of joint,” or tottering, rather than on the pain connected wit…
17th Century
Reformed Baptist
Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble It is not good to put confidence in any man, not in princes, nor …
Confidence in an unfaithful man is painful and vexatious; when we place any reliance on him, he not only fails, but makes us suffer for it.