Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 26:7
The legs of the lame are not equal: so [is] a parable in the mouth of fools.
7. are not equal ] Rather, hang loose, R.V. The strongest members of the body and the weightiest aphorisms of wisdom are alike useless appendages to one who lacks the power to turn them to account.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Or, Take away the legs of the lame man, and the parable that is in the mouth of fools: both are alike useless to their possessors. Other meanings are:
(1) The legs of the lame man are feeble, so is parable in the mouth of fools.
(2) the lifting up of the legs of a lame man, i. e., his attempts at dancing, are as the parable in the mouth of fools.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The legs of the lame are not equal, Heb. As (which note of similitude is plainly understood from the particle so in the following clause) the legs of the lame are lifted up, to wit, in going, or rather in dancing, which is done with great inequality and uncomeliness.
So is a parable in the mouth of fools; no less absurd and indecent are wise and pious speeches from a foolish and ungodly man, whose actions grossly contradict them, whereby he makes them contemptible, and himself ridiculous.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. legs . . . equalor, “takeaway the legs,” or “the legs . . . are weak.” In anycase the idea is that they are the occasion of an awkwardness, suchas the fool shows in using a parable or proverb (see Introduction;Pr 17:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The legs of the lame are not equal,…. Or as “the lifting up the legs by one that is lame” m, to dance to a pipe or violin, is very unseemly, and does but the more expose his infirmity, and can give no pleasure to others, but causes derision and contempt;
so [is] a parable in the mouth of fools; an apophthegm, or sententious expression of his own, which he delivers out as a wise saying, but is lame and halts; it is not consistent with itself, but like the legs of a lame man, one higher than the other: or one of the proverbs of this book, or rather any passage of Scripture, in the mouth of a wicked man; or any religious discourse of his is very unsuitable, since his life and conversation do not agree with it; it is as disagreeable to hear such a man talk of religious affairs as it is to see a lame man dance; or whose legs imitate buckets at a well, where one goes up and another down, as Gussetius n interprets the word.
m “elevatio crurum a claudo facta”, Gejerus, Michaelis. n “Femora claudi imitantur situlas”, Gussetius, p. 188. “situlas agunt crura ex claudio”, Schultens; “instar binarum sitularum in puteo alternatium adscendentium ac descendentium”, Gejerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7 The hanging down of the legs of a lame man;
And a proverb in a fool’s mouth.
With reference to the obscure , the following views have been maintained: – (1) The form as punctuated appears directly as an imperative. Thus the lxx translate, the original text of which is here: (conj. Lagarde’s) , which the Syr. (with its imitator, the Targ.) has rendered positively: “If thou canst give the power of (sound) going to the lame, then wilt thou also receive (prudent) words from the mouth of a fool.” Since Kimchi, has been regarded by many as the softening of the Imp. Piel , according to which the Venet. translates: ; and Bertheau and Zckler explain: always take away his legs from the lame, since they are in reality useless to him, just as a proverb in the mouth of the fool is useless – something that without loss might be never there.” But why did not the poet write , or , or , or the like? , to carry away, to dispense with, is Syriac (Targ. Jer. I, under Deu 32:50), but not Hebrew. And how meaningless is this expression! A lame man would withstand a surgeon (as he would a murderer) who would amputate his legs; for lame legs are certainly better than none, especially since there is a great distinction between a lame man ( , from , luxare ; cf. (Arab.) fasah , laxare , vid., Schultens) who halts or goes on crutches (2Sa 3:29), and one who is maimed (paralytic), who needs to be carried. It comes to this, that by this rendering of 7a one must, as a consequence, with the lxx, regard [and a proverb] as object. accus. parallel to [legs]; but “to draw a proverb from one’s mouth” is, after Pro 20:5, something quite different from to tear a proverb away from him, besides which, one cannot see how it is to be caught. Rather one would prefer: attollite crura claudi ( ut incedat, et nihil promovebitis ); but the of does not accord with this, and 7b does not connect itself with it. But the explanation: “take away the legs from a lame man who has none, at least none to use, and a proverb in the mouth of fools, when there is none,” is shattered against the “leg-taking-away,” which can only be used perhaps of frogs’ legs. (2) Symmachus translates: ; and Chajg explains as 3 pret. Kal, to which Kimchi adds the remark, that he appears to have found , which indeed is noted by Norzi and J. H. Michaelis as a variant. But the Masoretic reading is , and this, after Gesenius and Bttcher (who in this, without any reason, sees an Ephraimitic form of uttering the word), is a softened variation from . Only it is a pity that this softening, while it is supported by alius = , folium = , faillir = fallere , and the like, has yet not a single Hebrew or Semitic example in its favour. (3) Therefore Ewald finds, “all things considered,” that it is best to read , “the legs are too loose for the lame man to use them.” But, with Dietrich, we cannot concur in this, nor in the more appropriate translation: “the legs of the lame hang down loose,” to say nothing of the clearly impossible: “high are the legs of the lame (one higher than the other),” and that because this form for also occurs without pause, Psa 57:2; Psa 73:2; Psa 122:6; Isa 21:12; but although thus, as at Psa 36:9; Psa 68:32, at the beginning of a clause, yet always only in connection, never at the beginning of an address. (4) It has also been attempted to interpret as abstr., e.g., Euchel: “he learns from a cripple to dance, who seeks to learn proverbs from the mouth of a fool.” must mean the lifting up of the legs = springing and dancing. Accordingly Luther translates:
“As dancing to a cripple,
So does it become a fool to speak of wisdom.”
The thought is agreeable, and according to fact; but these words to not mean dancing, but much rather, as the Arabic shows ( vid., Schultens at Pro 20:5, and on the passage before us), a limping, waddling walk, like that of ducks, after the manner of a well-bucket dangling to and fro. And , after the form , would be an unheard-of Aramaism. For forms such as , swimming, and , security, Psa 30:7, on which C. B. Michaelis and others rest, cannot be compared, since they are modified from sachw , salw , while in the ending must be, and besides the Aramaic must in st. constr. be . Since none of these explanations are grammatically satisfactory, and besides = = gives a parallel member which is heterogeneous and not conformable to the nature of an emblematical proverb, we read after the forms , (cf. , Pro 6:10; Pro 24:33), and this signifies loose, hanging down, from , to hang at length and loosely down, or transitively: to hang, particularly of the hanging down at length of the bucket-rope, and of the bucket itself, to draw water from the well. The is similar to that of Job 28:4, only that here the connecting of the hanging down, and of that from which it hangs down, is clear. Were we to express the purely nominally expressed emblematical proverb in the form of a comparative one, it would thus stand as Fleischer translates it: ut laxa et flaccida dependent ( torpent ) crura a claudo, sic sententia in ore stultorum ( sc. torpet h. e. inutilis est ). The fool can as little make use of an intelligent proverb, or moral maxim ( dictum sententiosum ), as a lame man can of his feet; the word, which in itself is full of thought, and excellent, becomes halting, lame, and loose in his mouth (Schultens: deformiter claudicat ); it has, as spoken and applied by him, neither hand nor foot. Strangely, yet without missing the point, Jerome: quomodo pulcras frustra habet claudus tibias, sic indecens est in ore stultorum parabola . The lame man possibly has limbs that appear sound; but when he seeks to walk, they fail to do him service – so a bon-mot comes forth awkwardly when the fool seeks to make use of it. Hitzig’s conjecture: as leaping of the legs on the part of a lame man…, Bttcher has already shown sufficient reasons for rejecting; leaping on the part of any one, for the leaping of any one, were a court style familiar to no poet.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
More About Fools
Verses 7 and 9 both suggest by parables that the fool is ill-equipped to instruct. He is as awkward as one with unequal legs; and as likely to harm himself or others as a drunkard waving a thorny branch, Pro 12:23; Pro 15:2; Ecc 10:3.
Verse 8 emphasizes the folly of honoring a fool; to do so is as ridiculous as binding a stone in the sling from which it is ordinarily thrown, Pro 15:14; Pro 18:2.
Verse 10 is unclear. AV has supplied the word God in line 1, but various translators agree that God is not in the Hebrew text. It is unquestionable that God will judge both fools and transgressors, Pro 1:29-32.
Verse 11 declares that a fool reveals his true nature by his disgusting practices, as surely as the dog shows his nature by his actions, Exo 8:8; Exo 8:15; Mar 6:20-27; 2Pe 2:22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(7) The legs of the lame are not equal.Better, perhaps. The legs hang down from a lame man, and so is a parable (useless) in the mouth of fools; they can make no more use of it for the guidance of themselves or others, than can a lame man use his legs. (Comp. Luk. 8:10.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Legs not equal The root of , ( dalyu,) translated not equal, is uncertain. Hence we have the following: 1. As the legs of the lame are weak, so a proverb, etc. 2. Take away the legs of a lame man, and so take away a proverb, etc. 3. The legs hang down from the lame, etc. 4. The legs drag after the lame, etc. Each of these is favoured by different authorities. Forms from the supposed root are sometimes rendered in our Version in the sense of exalted, lifted up, etc. (See margin; also Psa 30:1.) Hence Patrick says: “As the word dalyu signifies something of elevation or lifting up, I have explained it of dancing,” which explanation, as it is curious, we give: “A wise saying as ill becomes a fool as dancing doth a cripple; for as his lameness never so much appears as when he would seem nimble, the other’s folly is never so ridiculous as when he would seem wise.” A good sense, whether it is that of the proverb or not.
Parable , ( mashal,) the same word is rendered proverb in this book. See on Pro 1:1.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 26:7 The legs of the lame are not equal: so [is] a parable in the mouth of fools.
Ver. 7. The legs of the lame are not equal. ] Locum habet proverbium cum is qui male vivit, bene loquitur, saith an interpreter. a This proverb hits such as speak well, but live otherwise. Uniformity and ubiquity of obedience are sure signs of sincerity; but as [an] unequal pulse argues a distempered body, so doth uneven walking show a diseased soul. A wise man’s life is all of one colour, like itself; and godliness runs through it, as the woof runs through the warp. But if all the parts of the line of thy life be not straight before God, it is a crooked life. If thy tongue speak by the talent, but thine hands scarce work by the ounce, thou shalt pass for a Pharisee. Mat 23:3 They spake like angels, lived like devils; had heaven commonly at their tongue ends, but the earth continually at their finger ends. Odi homines ignava opera, philosopha sententia, said the heathen; that is, I hate such hypocrites as have mouths full of holiness, hearts full of hollowness. A certain stranger coming on embassy to the senate of Rome, and colouring his hoary hair and pale cheeks with vermilion hue, a grave senator espying the deceit, stood up and said, ‘What sincerity are we to expect at this man’s hand, whose locks, and looks, and lips do lie?’
a Rodulph. Bain.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
legs = clothes; “legs” put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Subject), App-6, for the clothes on them.
are not equal = are lifted up: i.e. the clothes being lifted up expose the lame legs. So a fool exposes his folly in expounding a parable.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
not equal: Heb. lifted up
so: Pro 26:9, Pro 17:7, Psa 50:16-21, Psa 64:8, Mat 7:4, Mat 7:5, Luk 4:23
Reciprocal: Job 27:1 – Job
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 26:7. The legs of the lame are not equal Hebrew, , are lifted up, namely, in going, which is done with great inequality and uncomeliness; so is a parable in the mouth of fools No less absurd and indecent are wise and pious speeches from a foolish and ungodly man, whose actions grossly contradict them, whereby he makes them contemptible, and himself ridiculous.