properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
mouth
בְּפִ֣יbe.Fi
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
fools
כְסִילִֽיםkhe.si.Lim
H3684
properly · adjective, masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 23:35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet ag…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 26:6-9
To recommend wisdom to us, and to quicken us to the diligent use of all the means for the getting of wisdom, Solomon here shows that fools are fit for nothing; they are either sottish men, who will never think and design at all, or vicious men, who will never think and design well. 1. They are not fit to be entrusted with any business, not fit to go on an errand (Pro 26:6): He that does but send a message by the hand of a fool, of a careless heedless person, one who is so full of his jests and so given to his pleasures that he cannot apply his mind to any thing that is serious, will find his message misunderstood, the one half of it forgotten, the rest awkwardly delivered, and so many blunde…
As vexatious and unmanageable as a thorn in a drunkard's hand is a parable to a fool. He will be as apt to misuse is as to use it rightly.
John Gill on Proverbs 26:9
As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard,.... And he perceives it not; or being in his hand he makes an ill use of it, and hurts himself and others with it;
so is a parable in the mouth of fools, a proverbial sentence respecting religious matters; or a passage of holy Scripture which either he understands not, and has no spiritual perception of, any more than the drunkard has of the thorn in his hand; or which being used as a pun, or by way of jest, as it is the manner of some to pun upon or jest with the Scripture, hurts himself and others, wounds his own conscience, and ruins the souls of others; for it is dangerous meddling with edge tools, and hard to kick against the pricks; so…
9 A thorn goeth into the hand of a drunkard,
And a proverb in a fool's mouth;
i.e., if a proverb falls into a fool's mouth, it is as if a thorn entered into the hand of a drunken man; the one is as dangerous as the other, for fools misuse such a proverb, which, rightly used, instructs and improves, only to the wounding and grieving of another, as a drunken man makes use of the pointed instrument which he has possession of for coarse raillery, and as a welcome weapon of his strife. The lxx, Syr. (Targ.?), and Jerome interpret עלה in the sense of shooting up, i.e., of growing; Bttcher also, after Pro 24:31 and other passages, insists that the thorn which has shot up may be one that has not gro…
The Church Fathers
As if a thorn should spring forth in the hand of a drunkard, etc. A thorn springs forth in the hand of a drunkard when, in his works, who serves carnal seductions, the pricks of sins arise. To these rightly is compared a parable which the foolish propose, for although the foolish may know how to utter wise words, they do not know how to avoid the pricks of sins by which they either lacerate themselves or their neighbor. For often indeed, the imprudent one, in saying good things, either secretly seeks his own praise from men or the censure of others.
Now the boards [of the tabernacle] were made out of acacia wood, that is, a thorny sort [of wood], and according to the Savior's pronouncement thorns are the cares of this world, its pleasures, riches and false delights. But the pricks of sins may also not incongruously be compared with thorns, for it is written here that thorns grow in the hands of a drunkard, that is, sins in the works of a fool. Because the holy preachers are eager both to expurgate themselves from the pricks of vices and to strip away all the cares and delights of the world so that with a free mind they might be able to be expanded in the love of God and neighbor and to run far and wide to preach the word, it is therefore rightly said that the boards of the tabernacle were made out of acacia wood (that is, out of thorny [wood]), for they were indeed made of thorns, but thorns from which all the thorny barbs had been completely stripped away, so that they shone with a pure whiteness.
The sin of all people is not taken away by the Lamb if they neither grieve nor are tormented till it be taken away. For since thorns have not only been sown but have also taken deep root in the hands of everyone who has become drunk because of evil, and has lost sobriety, according to what is said in Proverbs, "Thorns grow in the hand of the drunkard." So what must we say in addition regarding the extent of distress they produce in him who has received such plants into the body of his own soul? For he who has admitted evil into the depth of his own soul to such an extent that he has become thorn-producing earth has to be cut down by the living and effectual word of God which is more piercing than any two-edged sword and more capable of burning than any fire.That fire which discovers thorns, and which, because of its own divinity, will stop them and not in addition set the threshing floors or fields of grain on fire, will need to be sent to such a soul.
Dictionary and topics
Thistle — (1.) Heb. hoah (2 Kings 14:9; Job 31:40). In Job 41:2 the Hebrew word is rendered “thorn,” but in the Revised Version “hook.” It is also rendered “thorn” in 2 Chr. 33:11; Prov. 26:9; Cant. 2:2;…
Fool · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Speaking · FOLLY IN — FOLLY IN
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
A proverb misapplied by a fool might actually cause harm. Cp. 26:7.
Rashi on Proverbs 26:9
A thorn came up in a drunkard’s hand Just like a thorn that is stuck to a drunkard’s hand, so is the parable stated below stuck in the mouth of a fool to be for him as a thorn—yea, a painful thorn. Now what is the parable?...
