Bede — Commentary on Scripture

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

For as a bird flying to lofty places, etc. Words are rightly compared to birds because they fly through the air sounding, from the mouth of the speaker to the ears of the listener; but they differ in this, that it can happen that a bird flying anywhere settles where no necessity or use is served to it. However, the words we speak do not disappear and vanish dispersed anywhere into the wind, but all return to their author, and either benefit the speaker if spoken well or burden them if spoken poorly, so that we are forced to account for every idle word on the day of judgment. How much more do curses oppress not only those maliciously aimed at the innocent but even those indiscriminately uttered by negligent customary practice against anyone. For indeed, the revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. VI). Not without reason does he say, a curse uttered in vain, for there is also a curse not uttered in vain, but released in just wrath of divine strictness against the impious; as that of blessed Peter against Simon Magus, Your money perish with you (Acts VIII); and those pronou…

For as a bird flying to lofty places, etc. Words are rightly compared to birds because they fly through the air sounding, from the mouth of the speaker to the ears of the listener; but they differ in this, that it can happen that a bird flying anywhere settles where no necessity or use is served to it. However, the words we speak do not disappear and vanish dispersed anywhere into the wind, but all return to their author, and either benefit the speaker if spoken well or burden them if spoken poorly, so that we are forced to account for every idle word on the day of judgment. How much more do curses oppress not only those maliciously aimed at the innocent but even those indiscriminately uttered by negligent customary practice against anyone. For indeed, the revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. VI). Not without reason does he say, a curse uttered in vain, for there is also a curse not uttered in vain, but released in just wrath of divine strictness against the impious; as that of blessed Peter against Simon Magus, Your money perish with you (Acts VIII); and those pronounced against apostates and heretics by ecclesiastical censure, anathema [anathemas]; about which the Lord says to the same Church, Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven (Matt. XVI, and XVIII).

Proverbs 26:4

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.

Do not answer a fool according to his foolishness, etc. Answer a fool according to his foolishness, lest he be wise in his own eyes. These should not be seen as mutually contradictory, not to answer a fool according to his foolishness, and to answer a fool according to his foolishness: for both correspond according to the diversity of times and persons, while the fool is also disregarded because he does not receive wisdom, and foolish pride is checked by another kind of foolishness, just as the Apostle also says, I have become a fool, you compelled me (II Cor. XII).

Proverbs 26:7

The legs of the lame are not equal: so is a parable in the mouth of fools.

Lame in his feet and drinking iniquity, etc. It may happen that any wise person sends a fool on a mission, not knowing that he is a fool; yet he does not lose the glory of his wisdom, since he believed in the good from the unknown, which he had heard. But he who knowingly sends a heretic to preach to the people is lame in his feet and drinks iniquity, because he has lost both the outward walk of good work and the inner sense, being drunk on foolishness.

Proverbs 26:8

As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honour to a fool.

As he who casts a stone into the heap of Mercury, etc. He who grants the honor of teaching to the foolish, that is, to the heretic, sins no less than he who worships the gods and idols of the pagans in vain.

Proverbs 26:9 · 2 passages

As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.

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.

Proverbs 26:11

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

As a dog returns to his vomit, etc. When a dog vomits, he surely ejects the food that was weighing down his chest; but when he returns to his vomit, he is again burdened by what had relieved him; and those who lament their sins, surely confess and cast out the wickedness which was badly satisfying them and which was weighing down the innermost parts of their mind, which, after confession, they resume while they long for it.

Proverbs 26:12

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

Have you seen a man who thinks he is wise in his own eyes, etc. The Lord explaining this, says: For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (John IX).

Proverbs 26:13

The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets.

The sluggard says, A lion is in the way, etc. Many, when they hear words of exhortation, blame the devil, saying that they indeed wish to begin the path of righteousness, but are hindered by Satan so that they might not accomplish it; and thus, with such words of excuse, they always turn on the hinge of their own sloth like a door; proposing now to go out to work and now to return to rest, they never cease to lie in their own perversities.

Proverbs 26:16

The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.

The sluggard thinks himself wiser, etc. He speaks of seven men delivering sentences, who, full of the sevenfold grace of the Spirit, have ministered to us the knowledge of holy Scripture. The fool thinks himself wiser than these because, often, some so turn aside their minds from performing what the Lord has commanded that they argue that not even all these things can be done or ought to be fulfilled by man. And as if wiser than those who have written the divine words, they claim that man cannot do what those, dictated by the Holy Spirit, have commanded man to do; indeed also what many men have been shown to have accomplished with the help of the grace of the same Spirit.

Proverbs 26:17

He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.

As he who takes a dog by the ears, etc. The Apostle says, Do not strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers (II Tim. II). Therefore, whoever is simple-minded, and if the ear of one of the two who are quarreling is captured by his biting word, he quickly begins to bark like a dog and generate contentions; but the wise man avoids this altogether.

Proverbs 26:22

The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

The words of a whisperer are as simple, etc. He calls the whisperer an instigator of strife and double-tongued, who pretends to praise words and seeks to hear that from which he can sow discord.

Proverbs 27:1

Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

Do not boast about tomorrow, etc. Do not ever be secure about the future, because even if you see yourself serving the Lord today, you cannot at all foresee what you might become in the future or how you may end your life. For blessed is the man who is always fearful (Prov. XXVIII).

Proverbs 27:3

A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both.

The stone is heavy, etc. It is indeed quite grievous for anyone to be weighed down by even a single capital crime, as if by the weight of a stone, or to be burdened by countless lighter sins, like pebbles or sand; but the anger of a fool is heavier than both, because these sins, once revealed as certainly evil as they are, more sharply prick the soul to chastise. Truly, because it is not a physical but a spiritual vice, the less it is perceived, the more it weighs down. Hence, he does not simply say anger, but the anger of a fool, is heavier than stone and sand. For the wise endeavor to examine and discipline their mental impulses as diligently as their actions and words.

Proverbs 27:4

Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

Anger holds no mercy, etc. This is not said of all anger, for of a most mild and modest man it is written that he went out from Pharaoh in great anger (Exod. X). But he speaks of the anger of a fool, which he mentioned in the preceding verse, which loses the bowels of compassion once it has flared up, only knowing to loosen its reins in its own fury. Otherwise, useful and necessary anger is meant, Better is anger than laughter (Eccli. VII), because by the sadness of the countenance, the mind of the delinquent is corrected.

Proverbs 27:5

Open rebuke is better than secret love.

Better is open rebuke, etc. Hidden love in this place is called improper love, such as adulterous love, which due to its shamefulness is rightfully hidden from the wise to avoid reproach; to which rightfully open rebuke is preferred, as it is undoubtedly better to rebuke someone openly with the intent of correction than to sin secretly out of a shared intent.

Proverbs 27:6

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Better are the wounds of a friend, etc. It is better to endure wounds and affliction from the Lord, who as a father instructs us as children, than to be deceived by the flattery of the devil, who, to deprive us of our heavenly inheritance, is accustomed to favor our errors, as if what we do is a light evil, and the tribulation we endure beyond the measure of our sins is inflicted by the Lord's discretion.

Proverbs 27:7

The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

The soul sated will trample upon the honeycomb, etc. The soul of the rich, who have their consolation and are told by the Lord, Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger (Luke VI), spurns the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom when preached; but the soul of those who hunger and thirst for justice finds it sweet to endure even the adversities of the world for the Lord, indeed to suffer death itself, knowing that through the cup of bitterness they will come to the joys of eternal salvation.

Proverbs 27:8

As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.

Like a bird flying away from its nest, etc. Just as a bird that neglects the eggs or chicks it was fostering and leaves them to be taken by other birds or animals, so indeed he who abandons the protection of the virtues in which he was progressing becomes a betrayer to the same virtues he seemed to possess, surrendering them to unclean spirits. Hence elsewhere it says: If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place. Which is clearly to say, If the temptation of the prince of this world, that is, the devil, presses upon you, be careful not to abandon the good work in which you were laboring.

Proverbs 27:10

Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.

Better is a neighbor close by, etc. It is better for you to have a neighbor who binds your soul with fraternal association than a brother who neglects to share common rights of faith and piety with you. The Lord clearly proved this in the parable of the wounded man by robbers, who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and of the Samaritan, who took care of him.