Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 10:26
As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so [is] the sluggard to them that send him.
26. them that send him ] Contrast Pro 25:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The teeth set on edge by the sour wine used by peasants Rth 2:14; Psa 69:21, the eye irritated by wood-smoke, these shadow the annoyance of having a messenger who will loiter on the way.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. As vinegar to the teeth] The acid softening and dissolving the alkali of the bone, so as to impair their texture, and render them incapable of masticating; and as smoke affects the eyes, irritating their tender vessels, so as to give pain and prevent distinct vision; so the sluggard, the lounging, thriftless messenger, who never returns in time with the desired answer.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As vinegar to the teeth; Which by its cold and sharpness it offends.
So is the sluggard; unserviceable and vexatious.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. that is, causes vexation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As vinegar to the teeth,…. Which, with its coldness and sourness, blunts the teeth, and makes it troublesome to eat: the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it,
“as the sour grape is hurtful to the teeth;”
sets them on edge;
and as smoke to the eye; dims the sight, causes the eye to water, and is very pernicious and vexatious:
so [is] the sluggard to them that send him: that is, the slothful messenger, as the Targum explains it; who, being sent on an errand, is dilatory, does not make haste to bring back the answer; which is very vexatious to those that send him, raises their passions, makes them fretful and very angry, be it on what account it will: so slothful and unprofitable servants, to whom talents are given for usefulness, which they hide or use not, are very provoking to Christ, and whom he will order into outer darkness; those who have gifts for sacred service ought not to be slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, Mt 25:26.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This proverb stands out of connection with the series:
As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes,
So is the sluggard to them who gives him a commission.
A parabolic proverb ( vid., p. 9), priamel -like in its formation (p. 13). Here and there is found with Mugrash, but in correct texts it has Reba-magnum; the verse is divided into two by Athnach, whose subordinate distributive is ( Accentssystem, xi. 1) Reba-magnum. Smoke makes itself disagreeably perceptible to the sense of smell, and particularly to the eyes, which it causes to smart so that they overflow with tears; wherefore Virgil speaks of it as amarus , and Horace lacrimosus . (from , to be sour, harsh) signifies properly that which is sour, as acetum , ; here, after the lxx , the unripe grapes, but which are called ( ) ( vid., under Job 15:33), by which the Syr., here following the lxx, translates, and which also in the Talmud, Dema i. 1, is named , after a doubtful meaning ( vid., Aruch, and on the other side Rashi), thus: vinegar, which the word commonly means, and which also accords with the object of the comparison, especially if one thinks of the sharp vinegar-wine of the south, which has an effect on the teeth denoted by the Hebr. verb , as the effect of smoke is by (Fl.). The plur. is that of the category, like Pro 22:21; Pro 25:13; the parallel of the latter passage does not at least make it necessary to regard it, like this, as a plur. excellentiae (Bertheau, Hitzig, Ewald). They who send a sluggard, i.e., who make him their agent, do it to their own sorrow; his slothfulness is for them, and for that which they have in view, of dull, i.e., slow and restrained, of biting, i.e., sensibly injurious operation.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Righteous Exclusively Happy. | |
26 As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.
Observe, 1. Those that are of a slothful disposition, that love their ease and cannot apply their minds to any business, are not fit to be employed, no, not so much as to be sent on an errand, for they will neither deliver a message with any care nor make any haste back. Such therefore are very unmeet to be ministers, Christ’s messengers; he will not own the sending forth of sluggards into his harvest. 2. Those that are guilty of so great an oversight as to entrust such with any affair, and put confidence in them, will certainly have vexation with them. A slothful servant is to his master as uneasy and troublesome as vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes; he provokes his passion, as vinegar sets the teeth on edge, and occasions him grief to see his business neglected and undone, as smoke sets the eyes a weeping.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Sluggard
(Pro 10:26)
Verse 26 suggests that as smoke irritates the eyes and vinegar hurts the teeth, so will the sluggard be a pain to the employer, Pro 6:6-11; Pro 13:4; Pro 18:9; Pro 26:16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 10:26
THE VEXATIOUSNESS OF A SLUGGISH SERVANT
I. He is as smoke to the eyes. Smoke in the eyes prevents the accomplishment of a mans purposes, or at least it hinders and annoys him in their execution. The eye is the light of the body; if vision is in any way obstructed or impaired, delay and vexation must ensue. So the employer of a sluggish servant must be the victim of perplexity and annoyance. He sends him on an errand, or entrusts him with a work which it is important should be done within a certain time. But he lingers over it until the time is long past, and perhaps an opportunity is lost which can never be recalled. Much often depends upon the performance of duties up to time. The want of punctuality sometimes is as disastrous as not doing the thing at all. How many plans have been frustrated, how many sufferings have in various ways been entailed upon men, by delay in the performance of duty. A master who has to depend upon a sluggard is like a man in the midst of the smoke of a burning house; he is uncertain as to his present whereabouts, and ignorant of what mishap may befal him next.
II. He is as vinegar to the teeth. He is most irritating to the temper. As vinegar sours everything with which it comes in contact, so a sluggard sours the temper of those with whom he has to do, and makes them sometimes not only irritable with him who is the offender, but with the innocent also.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Does, then, the sluggard disappoint and provoke his earthly master? See that we be not such sluggards to our Heavenly Master. Laodicean professors are especially hateful in his sight (Rev. 3:16). The slothful minister carries in a tremendous account to Him that sent him. No more pitiable object is found than the man who has time to spare, who has no object of commanding interest, and is going on to the end as if he had spent his whole life in childrens play, and had lived to no useful purpose. Why standeth he idle in the market-place? It cannot beNo man hath hired him. His masters call sounds in his earsGo ye into the vineyard. And at his peril he disobeys it (Mat. 20:7-30).Bridges.
Sluggishness is a cutting, vexing thing. If we are Christs, we should crucify this self-pleasing affection of the flesh. It is a sin to waste another mans time, as much as to waste his property. Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. No doubt it is the natural disposition of some people to be slovenly and unexact. But what is your religion worth if it do not correct such a propensity? If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. If the new life is strong in the heart, it will send its warm pulses down to the extremest member. He who is a Christian in little things is not a little Christian; he is the greatest Christian, and the most useful. The baptism of these little outlying things shows that he is full of grace, for these are graces overflowings; and they are ever the overflowings of the full well that refresh the desert. The great centre must be fully occupied before the stream can reach that outer edge.Arnot.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
26. As smoke so is the sluggard Not an antithetic verse, but a similitude easily apprehended. A sluggard is an annoyance, as is acid to the teeth or smoke to the eyes.
Vinegar Sour wine. Compare Num 6:3; Psa 69:21; Rth 2:14.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 26. As vinegar to the teeth,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 10:26. As vinegar to the teeth “A negligent dilatory servant vexes and rives, as it were, with trouble those who send him; just as keen vinegar gives pain to the teeth, and bitter smoke vexes and torments the eyes.” See Schultens.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 10:26 As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so [is] the sluggard to them that send him.
Ver. 26. So is the sluggard to them that send him. ] Habent aulae suum cito, cito. What thou doest, do quickly, said our Saviour to the traitor. He cannot away with dulness and oscitancy in any of his, but condemns it in those slow things, , the Hebrews, Heb 5:11 and commands them double diligence. Pro 6:11-12 “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” Rom 12:11 A dull heart makes no riddance. Baruc accendit seipsum Neh 3:20 repairing earnestly, and so finished his task in shorter time. Let ambassadors, ministers, messengers, &c., nimble up their business, or look for no thank. What a deal of content gave Cranmer to Henry VIII, by his expediting the business of the divorce, both at home and abroad, in foreign universities! And what a deal of distaste gave Wolsey by the contrary!
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
smoke. In Eastern tents and houses, wood or charcoal fires, and no chimneys.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 10:26
Pro 10:26
“As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke in the eyes, So is the sluggard to them that send him.”
The message here is that there is no worse messenger that can be sent than a lazy one.
Pro 10:26. See the Paraphrase on this verse. The teeth do not like vinegar nor the eyes smoke, and neither does an employer like a sluggard. Pulpit Commentary: In a country where chimneys are unknown…the eyes must have often been painfully affected by the household fire.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
vinegar: Pro 25:13, Pro 25:20
as smoke: As the acidity of vinegar causes the unpleasantness and pain to the teeth, and by softening and dissolving the alkali of the bone, impairs their texture, and renders them incapable of mastication; and as smoke, by irritating the tender vessels, causes the eyes to smart, and prevents distinct vision; so a sluggish messenger is a continual vexation and loss to those by whom he is employed. Isa 65:5
so: Mat 25:26, Rom 12:11, Heb 6:12
Reciprocal: Pro 6:6 – thou Pro 13:17 – wicked Pro 26:6 – sendeth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 10:26. As vinegar to the teeth Which, by its coldness and sharpness, it offends; and as smoke, &c., so is the sluggard Unserviceable and vexatious. A negligent, dilatory servant vexes those who send him, just as keen vinegar gives pain to the teeth, and bitter smoke torments the eyes. Schultens.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
10:26 As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so [is] the sluggard to them that {l} send him.
(l) He is trouble and grief to him about any business.