Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 27:7
The full soul loatheth a honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
7. loatheth ] Lit. treads under foot; calcabit, Vulg. The second clause of the verse has been compared with Horace’s
“Jejunus stomachus raro vulgaria temnit.”
Sat. ii. 2. 38.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The special instance covers the general law, that indulgence in pleasure of any kind brings on satiety and weariness, but self-restraint multiplies the sources of enjoyment.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 27:7
The full soul loatheth an honeycomb.
Spiritual appetite
It is a great blessing when food and appetite meet together. Sometimes men have been so luxuriously fed that appetite has departed from them altogether. The rules which apply to bodily appetite equally hold true of the mind. We easily lose our taste for anything of which we have our fill. Men in the things of God have not always an appetite for the sweetest and most precious truth.
I. Jesus Christ is Himself sweeter than the honeycomb. This is clear if we consider who He is, and what He gives and does. Our Lord is the incarnation of Divine love. The love of God is sweet, and Jesus is that love made manifest. Jesus is in Himself the embodiment of boundless mercy to sinners as well as love to creatures. Jesus must be sweet, for He meets all our wants as sinners. He breathes into our hearts the sweetness of abounding peace. His very name is redolent of celestial hope to believers. Jesus is sweet to God Himself, and to the angels in heaven. It is His presence that makes heaven what it is.
II. There are those who loathe the sweetness of our Lord. Some loathe Him so as to trample on Him. Others are always murmuring at Him. Some are utterly indifferent to Him. The loathing manifests itself by little signs. It comes of a souls being full–of the world; of outward religiousness; or of pride.
III. There are some who do appreciate the sweetness of Christ. Pray for a good appetite for Christ, and when you have it, keep it. Do not waste a good appetite upon anything less sweet than the true honeycomb. When you have the appetite, indulge it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
An appetite for good things essential for their enjoyment
To appreciate a thing you must first feel its want. This applies to–
I. Corporeal good. It is appetite that makes bodily food sweet and enjoyable. Delicious was the manna to the Israelites at first. Which of the two is the more blest, the man who has the abundance of the enjoyable without the power of enjoying or he who has the scarcest and humblest fare with the full relish of the hungry soul?
II. Intellectual good. A man may have an immense library, and no appetite for books. To him the priceless library is worse than worthless. Id rather be the man of one book, nay, of no book at all but the book of my own soul–the book of nature–with an appetite for truth, than the owner of the choicest library of the world with no desire for knowledge.
III. Spiritual good. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The full soul, a man whose appetite or desire (which is oft expressed in Scripture by the name of soul) is fully satisfied,
loatheth an honey-comb, the most delicious meats. The design of this proverb is to show the inconvenience that ofttimes attends upon plenty, and the advantage of poverty, that the rich might learn moderation, and the poor content.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. The luxury of wealth confersless happiness than the healthy appetite of labor.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The full soul loatheth an honeycomb,…. Or “tramples upon” it a, as the word signifies, and most versions render it, expressive of contempt and abhorrence; and suits will the situation of the honeycomb, which was usually in trees and rocks in Palestine: and so might drop from thence, and be trampled upon by passengers; and especially such as are here described, whose appetites have been sated with dainties, and their stomachs heave at the most delicious food. Jarchi interprets this of one that has no desire after the doctrines of the law; and so the senses of it are not esteemed by him; whereas he that has a desire for it, even the things which come to him with bitterness and labour are sweet to him. But it may be better applied to a self-sufficient man, that is full of himself: of his own wisdom and knowledge in divine things; of his strength, and the power of his free will; of his purity, holiness, goodness, and righteousness; who loathes the Gospel, comparable to the honeycomb for its sweetness; see Pr 16:24; it being disagreeable to his taste, and as insipid as the white of an egg to him; and as being against him, which makes him out an arrant fool, blows a blast on all his goodness and goodliness, strips the creature of his righteousness, and excludes boasting;
but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet; that is in want of provision, has an appetite for it; anything, though ever so mean and disrelishing to others, is sweet to such an one; as was barley bread to Artaxerxes king of Persia, and country bread made of bran to Ptolemy Lagus king of Egypt, when in great distress for food b: Seneca says c, hunger will make bad bread fine food. And so is the Gospel, and every doctrine of it, to a sensible sinner; that is in want, and knows its wants, and has desires after spiritual things created in it; hungers and thirsts after the word and ordinances; after Christ, the bread of life; after the blessings of grace in him; particularly after the pardon of sin, and justifying righteousness and salvation by him; and after more knowledge of him, and communion with him. Now, though, here is nothing bitter in the Gospel, properly speaking, as in the law; yet, that which is bitter to others, and had been bitter to the above persons, is now sweet, and which are disagreeable to the flesh; as the denial of sinful, civil, and righteous self, which the Gospel teaches; and even that which is the most contemptible to men; as the preaching of the cross, or the doctrine of salvation by a crucified Christ; the doctrines of electing grace, imputed righteousness, the satisfaction of Christ, c. How sweet are these to the taste of a hungry soul! and even though they are attended with bitter afflictions, the reproaches, revilings, and persecutions of men as the paschal lamb, a type of Christ, was eaten with bitter herbs. This may also be applied to the hearing of the word; where and when there is plenty of means, men grow weary of the word, sick of it, and surfeit upon it and loath it; or, however, are very curious and nice, and cannot take up with plain preaching, but must have something suited to their palate, dressed up in a very elegant manner: but when the word of the Lord is precious or rare, and where there are few opportunities of hearing it, sensible souls, that have spiritual appetites, are glad of it; and it is sweet unto them, though not so nicely dressed and though brought to them in a homely manner.
a “calcabit”, Pagninus, Montanus; “caleat”, Vatablus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Gejerus “conculcat”, Cocceius; “proculcat”, Michaelis, Schultens. b “Jejunus stomachus raro vulgaria temnit”, Horat. Sermon. l. 2. Sat. 2. c Epist. 123.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In Pro 27:7-10 there is also visible a weaving of the external with the internal. First, there are two proverbs, in each of which there is repeated a word terminating with .
7 A satisfied soul treadeth honeycomb under foot;
And a hungry soul – everything bitter is (to it) sweet.
It is unnecessary to read (Hitzig); is stronger; “to tread with the feet” is the extreme degree of scornful despite. That satiety and hunger are applicable to the soul, vid., under Pro 10:3. In 7b, the adverb , relative to the nomin. absol., like Pro 28:7, but not Pro 13:18. “Hunger is the best cook,” according to a German proverb; the Hebrew proverb is so formed that it is easily transferred to the sphere of the soul. Let the man whom God has richly satisfied with good things guard himself against ingratitude towards the Giver, and against an undervaluing of the gifts received; and if they are spiritual blessings, let him guard himself against self-satisfaction and self-contentment, which is, in truth, the worst poverty, Rev 3:17; for life without God is a constant hunger and thirst. There is in worldly things, even the most pleasing, a dissatisfaction felt, and a dissatisfaction awakening disgust; and in spiritual life, a satiety which supposes itself to be full of life, but which is nothing else than the decay of life, than the changing of life into death.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
7 The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
Solomon here, as often in this book, shows that the poor have in some respects the advantage of the rich; for, 1. They have a better relish of their enjoyments than the rich have. Hunger is the best sauce. Coarse fare, with a good appetite to it has a sensible pleasantness in it, which those are strangers to whose hearts are overcharged with surfeiting. Those that fare sumptuously every day nauseate even delicate food, as the Israelites did the quails; whereas those that have no more than their necessary food, though it be such as the full soul would call bitter, to them it is sweet; they eat it with pleasure, digest it, and are refreshed by it. 2. They are more thankful for their enjoyments: The hungry will bless God for bread and water, while those that are full think the greatest dainties and varieties scarcely worth giving thanks for. The virgin Mary seems to refer to this when she says (Luke i. 53), The hungry, who know how to value God’s blessings, are filled with good things, but the rich, who despise them, are justly sent empty away.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
An Important Choice
Verse 7 suggests that overindulgence leads to contempt for even the most desirable; but restraint increases the enjoyment of the lesser, even the bitter. This principle applies in both physical and spiritual realms, Pro 25:16; Pro 25:27; Pro 23:1-3; Isa 55:2; Amo 6:1; Amo 6:4; Luk 1:50-53; Joh 6:51; Luk 21:34.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 27:7
WANT OF APPETITE
I. The value which men set upon things depends upon their condition and circumstances. When we look around upon our fellow-creatures, we can but remark the widely different estimates which different men place upon the same things, and also the different value which the same man attaches to the same object at different times. To begin as Solomon does, with our lower naturethere are hundreds of well-fed citizens in every community who look with indifference at the most tempting dainties that are set before them, and perhaps close to their mansions are to be found as many to whom one good meal would give the keenest physical enjoyment. And if a traveller were passing through England he would probably turn away with disdain from a dinner of bread and water; but if he were in some far-off desert land he would hail such plain fare with delight. If we apply the proverb to mans intellectual nature, we find the same law in operation. Some men are surrounded with opportunities of mental culture and growth, and they despise and neglect them because they have no intellectual appetites, while others who are shut out from such advantages are longing eagerly for them. And it is no less true in spiritual things. The longings and aspirations of those whose spiritual appetites have been awakened are entirely unknown to those who have not felt their soul need, and the language which they use to express their desires is an unknown tongue to those who say, I am rich and have need of nothing (Rev. 3:17). There was a time in the life of Saul of Tarsus, when the language of Paul the apostle would have been utterly unintelligible to him. It would have been hard to convince the young man who consented to the death of Stephen, that he would one day count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus (Php. 3:8), but the different estimate which he set upon the Gospel of the Son of God depended entirely upon the difference in his own spiritual condition at those different periods in his life. Even the gift of a Saviour is lightly esteemed, when men are full of pride and worldliness; it is true in this sense as in others that the full soul loatheth an honeycomb.
II. A sense of need will not only teach men to value luxuries and comforts, but will make what was unpalatable welcome and acceptable. The young man who had lightly esteemed the good things on his fathers table, came not only to remember with a longing desire the bread that fed his fathers servants, but would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat (Luk. 15:16). And when a youth has known the misery of homelessness, the restraints of his fathers house, and the daily toil which once he felt to be so irksome, are light and easy in comparison. And so it is when a soul begins to hunger and thirst after righteousness. The conditions of reconciliation with God and the yoke of Christ, which before were so distasteful, are joyfully and eagerly accepted, and that which was bitter becomes sweet to the soul.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(7) The full soul loatheth an honeycomb.So the moderate use of the good things of this life increases our enjoyment of them. But in spiritual things, the less we content ourselves with, the less hunger we feel, and less enjoyment do we derive from them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Full soul The satiated appetite, put by figure for the person possessing it. So, also, in the next clause.
Hungry soul A craving appetite. The proverb, in its most literal sense, is a lesson learned from experience. The principle has its amplifications. The honest labourer often relishes more his coarser fare than the pampered Epicurean does his richest feast. Men are often more grateful for the smallest blessings associated with poverty, than rich men are for the greater delicacies with which they have been long surfeited. “Hunger is the best cook.” Indulgence brings satiety and disgust; self restraint multiplies enjoyments. Compare Job 6:7. Loatheth Literally, tramples upon.
Honeycomb Drippings of honey.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 27:7. The full soul loatheth an honey-comb As hunger makes men relish the most distasteful food, when full stomachs loath the most delightful; so poverty has this advantage of plenty, that it disposes men to be thankful for the smallest blessings, though mixed with care and trouble; when the richer sort, if they be not very cautious, are apt to be unsatisfied with, nay, to nauseate their most delicious enjoyments, upon which they have a long time surfeited. Bishop Patrick.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 27:7 The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
Ver. 7. The full soul loatheth an honeycomb. ] Heb., Treadeth it under feet as dung or dogs meat. Chrysostom reports the saying of a certain philosopher to the same purpose. Anima in satietate posita etiam favis illudit; The sated soul rejecteth finest fare and most sweetest sustenance. This holds true in spirituals too. The honey of God’s holy word, how is it trampled on by those stall fed beasts, in whom fulness hath bred forgetfulness, – saturity security! “Our soul loatheth this light meat,” said they of their manna, when once cloyed with it. The Pharisees found no more sweetness or savouriness in our Saviour’s sermons, than in the white of an egg, or a dry chip. Our nation is also sick of a spiritual plethory or pleurisy; we begin to surfeit on the bread of life. Now when God sees his mercies lying under table, it is just with him to call to the enemy to take away. “Behold, therefore, I will deliver thee to the men of the East, – who shall eat thy fruit, and drink thy milk.” Eze 25:4
But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
a Ieiunus stomachus raro vulgaria temnit. – Horat.
b Turk. Hist., fol. 310.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 27:7
Pro 27:7
“The full soul loatheth a honeycomb; But to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet.”
Cook pointed out that the teaching here is using a physical fact regarding bodily hunger as a metaphor of the higher truth that, “Indulgence of pleasure of any kind brings on satiety and weariness, but that self-restraint multiples the enjoyment.
Pro 27:7. Benjamin Franklin: A hungry man never saw poor bread. People who complain about food would probably not do so if really hungry. When one is really hungry, just plain bread or dry crackers taste good, but after one has eaten a big meal at a family get-together, just to mention eating will fulfill the fact of this verse: The full soul loatheth a honeycomb. In a sense this is why some are not hungry for the gospel: they feel no need, so they have no desire.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
full: Num 11:4-9, Num 11:18-20, Num 21:5
loatheth: Heb. treadeth under foot
to: Job 6:7, Luk 15:16, Luk 15:17, Joh 6:9
Reciprocal: Num 11:20 – and it
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 27:7. A full soul A man whose appetite, or desire, is fully satisfied; loatheth a honey-comb The most delicious meats; but to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet Hunger makes a man relish the most distasteful food, while full stomachs loathe the most delightful. The design of this proverb is to show the inconvenience that oftentimes attends upon plenty, and the advantage of poverty, that the rich may learn moderation, and the poor content. Poverty, says Bishop Patrick, hath this advantage over plenty, that it disposes men to be thankful for the smallest blessings, though mixed with care and trouble; when the richer sort, if they be not very careful, are apt to be unsatisfied with, nay to nauseate, their most delicious enjoyments, upon which they have long surfeited.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The point of this proverb seems to be that the quantity of a person’s material possessions affects his attitude toward them. Those who have much do not appreciate some things, even some things that are valuable. On the other hand, a person with little tends to appreciate even the comparatively insignificant items he receives or owns. For example, a person who receives much praise may find it nauseating, but someone who gets very little praise may savor what little he gets. [Note: Ibid.]
"Hunger is the best sauce." [Note: Toy, p. 483.]