Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 18:6
A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.
6. enter into ] The Heb. may mean either “come into,” or “come with,” “bring” (R.V. marg.).
strokes ] Or, stripes, R.V., as the same Heb. word is rendered in Pro 19:29, the only other place in which it occurs. Some, however, take “calleth for” to mean “provokes,” “causes.” “Os ejus jurgia provocat,” Vulg.; “In causa est ut a verbis ad verbera veniatur,” Maur., which accords with “bring” contention, if that be adopted in the first clause.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The first verse speaks of the immediate, the others of the remote, results of the fools temper. First, contention, then strokes or blows, then destruction, and last, wounds.
Pro 18:8
Wounds – The word so rendered occurs here and in Pro 26:22 only. Others render it dainties, and take the verse to describe the avidity with which people swallow in tales of scandal. They find their way to the innermost recesses of mans nature.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 18:6-8
A fools lips enter into contention.
The speech of a splenetic fool
How frequently Solomon speaks of the fool! and the fool in his idea was not an intellectually demented man, but a morally bad man.
I. It is querulous. A fools lips enter into contention. His ill-nature shows itself in his readiness to pick quarrels, to create frays.
II. It is provocational. His mouth calleth for strokes. They irritate the men they speak to, and often prompt to acts of violence.
III. It is self-ruinous. A fools mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. Such speech is indeed destructive.
1. It destroys the mans own reputation. A querulous man has no social respect or command; he is shunned.
2. It destroys the mans own social enjoyment. He has no loving fellowships, no lasting friendships.
3. It destroys the mans own peace of mind.
IV. It is socially injurious. The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. The talebearer as a rule is a man with a splenetic temperament; he delights in mischief. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
A fools lips enter into contention; a fool by his rash and wicked speeches provoketh others to quarrel with him, and, as it follows, to strike him.
His mouth calleth for strokes; procureth strokes to himself.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6, 7. The quarrelsome bringtrouble on themselves. Their rash language ensnares them (Pr6:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A fool’s lips enter into contention,…. That is, between others, when he has nothing to do with it; but he must be meddling, and make himself a party in the contention, which is an argument of his folly; he says things which occasion disputes, raise contentions among men, and provoke to wrath and anger. The Septuagint version is, “the lips of a fool lead him to evils”: for, as they lead him to contention and strife, the issue of that is confusion and every evil work;
and his mouth calleth for strokes: as he stirs up and encourages contention, so he proceeds to blows, and excites others to them; from words he goes to blows, and, by the ill and provoking language of his mouth, gets many a blow to himself. Jarchi seems to understand it of chastisement, from the hand of God; see Pr 26:3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6 The lips of the fool engage in strife,
And his mouth calleth for stripes.
We may translate: the lips of the fool cause strife, for , to come with anything, e.g., Psa 66:13, is equivalent to bring it (to bring forward), as also: they engage in strife; as one says : to be engaged in bloodshed, 1Sa 25:26. We prefer this intrant ( ingerunt se ), with Schultens and Fleischer. for , a synallage generis, to which, by means of a “self-deception of the language” (Fl.), the apparent masculine ending of such duals may have contributed. The stripes which the fool calleth for ( , like Pro 2:3) are such as he himself carries off, for it comes a verbis ad verbera . The lxx: his bold mouth calleth for death ( ); has, in codd. and old editions, the Mem raphatum, as also at 19:29; the sing. is thus , like to , for the Mem dagessatum is to be expected in the inflected , by the passing over of the o into u .
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
6 A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. 7 A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.
Solomon has often shown what mischief bad men do to others with their ungoverned tongues; here he shows what mischief they do to themselves. 1. They embroil themselves in quarrels: A fool’s lips, without any cause or call, enter into contention, by advancing foolish notions which others find themselves obliged to oppose, and so a quarrel is begun, or by giving provoking language, which will be resented, and satisfaction demanded, or by setting men at defiance, and bidding them do if they dare. Proud, and passionate men, and drunkards, are fools, whose lips enter into contention. A wise man may, against his will, be drawn into a quarrel, but he is a fool that of choice enters into it when he might avoid it, and he will repent it when it is too late. 2. They expose themselves to correction: The fool’s mouth does, in effect, call for strokes; he has said that which deserves to be punished with strokes, and is still saying that which needs to be checked, and restrained with strokes, as Ananias unjustly commanded that Paul should be smitten on the mouth. 3. They involve themselves in ruin: A fool’s mouth, which has been, or would have been, the destruction of others, proves at length his own destruction, perhaps from men. Shimei’s mouth was his own destruction, and Adonijah’s, who spoke against his own head. And when a fool, by his foolish speaking, has run himself into a premunire, and thinks to bring himself off by justifying or excusing what he has said, his defence proves his offence, and his lips are still the snare of his soul, entangling him yet more and more. However, when men by their evil words shall be condemned at God’s bar their mouths will be their destruction, and it will be such an aggravation of their ruin as will not admit one drop of water, one drop of comfort, to cool their tongue, which is their snare and will be their tormentor.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Improper Use of Tongue
Verse 6 affirms that a fool’s tongue involves him in contention that brings punishment, Pro 10:13; Pro 19:29; Pro 26:3.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 18:6. Calleth for. Stuart understands this in the sense of to deserve.
Pro. 18:8. Wounds. The word so translated occurs only here and in chap. Pro. 26:22, and will bear very different renderings. Some translate it words of sport (Stuart and Zockler); others, with Delitzsch, dainty morsels; others, whispers, soft breezes.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Pro. 18:6-8
FOLLY AND ITS RESULTS
I. None but a foolish man seeks contention. As we saw in the previous chapter (Pro. 18:14) contention or strife is an evil of which none at its beginnings can see the end. It may seem a very insignificant deed to strike a flint and steel together so as to produce a single spark, but one spark may produce a terrible and destructive fire. When a settler in a forest rubs two dry sticks together the act seems a trifling one, but the friction in time develops the latent heat of the wood, and there is enough fire brought into activity to lay low many a mighty forest tree. None but foolish men and children ever play with fire, and when they do it they generally suffer themselves first, but they are often not the only sufferers. So is it with contention, or a dispute in words. Wise men are often obliged to contend for truth and right, but they never seek an occasion of dispute. But there are moral fools who think it only an amusement to pick a quarrel, little heeding what the consequences of it may be, not caring if blows succeed to angry words, or perhaps even desiring that they should do so. But although a man may play with fire and escape unharmed, or may even apply a torch to his neighbours house without singeing so much as a hair of his own head, no fools lips enter into contention or call for strokes without bringing retribution upon his own head. His mouth is in his own destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul, for it is a law as old as the universe that with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again (Mat. 6:1-2). The man who seeks contention will alway find others like-minded with himself who will be willing to do for him what he has done for others, and he who calls for strokes upon his fellow-creatures will receive them upon his own head with compound interest.
II. None but a cruel man will be a tale-bearer. A quarrelsome, passionate man is a fool, and he is also a cruel man, but he is not so cruel as the talebearer. The first man wounds, but he inflicts his injury in open daylight and in the front of his victim, but the second is like the treacherous footpad whose face is never seen and whose step is never heard, but who comes up behind his prey in the dark and leaves no trace behind but the mortal sword-thrust. But it must not be forgotten that there must always be two persons implicated in the guilt and cruelty of thus killing the reputation of a fellow-creature. The tale-bearer must have a repository for his slandersthe busy tongue must have a listening ear or no mischief would be done, and tale-bearing would die out for want of an atmosphere in which it could live. A reference to the Critical Notes will show that the word translated wounds may be rendered dainties, and it is because evil reports of others are so keenly relished by an unsanctified soul that the words of a tale-bearer are able to inflict such suffering and work so much ill in the world.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 18:6. The emperor Julian used to banter the Christians with that precept of our Lord, When thine adversary smites thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also: but Christians consult their ease as well as their consciences when they obey this precept in the spirit of it; whereas proud and passionate fools, when they give vent to their rancorous spirits, because they cannot bear the shadow of an indignity, not only turn the other cheek to their adversary, but smite, and urge, and almost force him to strike and destroy them.Lawson.
Pro. 18:8. The bite of a viper is not so deadly as the wound of these talebearers stories and insinuations. The truth is they contrive to infuse their poison without a bite. If they would but appear in their true character;would they but show their fangs, and make us feel them, we should be put upon our guard. We know the viper. We shun it. And when it has unhappily succeeded in wounding us, we instantly have recourse to means for preventing the poison from getting into the mass of the blood, and pervading the system. But these human vipers infuse their poison in the language of kindness and love. Their words are smoother than oil; yet are they drawn swords;envenomed fangs, of which the virus gets into our system ere we are aware, works its mischievous and morally deadly effects, and becomes incapable of extraction. Every attempt at its removal still leaves some portion of it behind. There is, in the original word, an implication of softness, simplicity, undesignedness, which only gives the secret weapon with which the wound is inflicted the greater keenness.Wardlaw.
The tongue of the tale-bearer is a two-edged sword, at once it cutteth on both sides, and his words are his wounds, at once wounding both him of whom he speaketh and him to whom he speaketh. To the one he gives the wounds of his slandering, to the other the wounds of his flattering. The one he woundeth so, that his blow is neither heard, seen, nor felt. The other he woundeth so, that though his blow be heard, seen, and felt, yet it is not perceived: in both they go down into the heart, as revealing the heart of the one, and as removing the heart of the other from him. Or the words may be translated, the words of a talebearer are as smoothing words: for he frameth his own words to as much softness, as those which he reporteth he maketh to be hard. And indeed, as they sound, they are commonly so pleasing, that they easily slip down into the heart, where they are readily entertained.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(6) His mouth calleth for strokes, which he provokes by his insolence and quarrelsomeness.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Enter into contention Engage in a quarrel; perhaps the quarrel of others may be intended.
His mouth calleth for strokes He provokes a blow on the mouth, and gets it for his intermeddling. Or it may merely mean, that he deserves it. Comp. Pro 19:29.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 6. A fool’s lips enter into contention,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 18:6 A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.
Ver. 6. A fool’s lips enter into contention.] See Trapp on “ Pro 18:5 “
And his mouth calleth for strokes
a Vehementer doleo, quia vehementer diligo. Atque sit cum maesto vultu, oculis demissis, cum quadam tarditate et vocis plangitu procedit maledictio. – Bernard.
lips. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), for what is spoken by them.
mouth. See above note. Illustrations: Jdg 8:4-17; 2Ki 2:23, 2Ki 2:24; Luk 19:22.
Pro 18:6
Pro 18:6
“A fool’s lips enter into contention, And his mouth calleth for stripes.”
“When some fool starts an argument, he is asking for a beating.” “When a stupid man talks, contention follows. These translations are currently favored; but as the words stand, they also indicate that a fool joins in any controversy, calling for a judgment of stripes (scourging) upon others, not upon himself. When Jesus was crucified, the “fools” shouted, “Let him be crucified.”
Pro 18:6. A fools lips show that he is a fool. He says the wrong thing or speaks at the wrong time, or he says what he does in the wrong place or to the wrong person. He is like a child who does not know these wise details of speech. Consequently, he gets himself into trouble with others, and his superiors correct him severely for it.
fool’s: Pro 12:16, Pro 13:10, Pro 14:16, Pro 16:27, Pro 16:28, Pro 17:14, Pro 20:3, Pro 27:3
his: Pro 14:3, Pro 19:19, Pro 22:24, Pro 22:25, Pro 25:24, Pro 29:9
Reciprocal: 1Ki 2:23 – spoken 1Ki 12:10 – My little finger 2Ki 14:8 – Come 2Ch 10:10 – My little finger 2Ch 25:19 – why shouldest Pro 3:30 – General Pro 10:8 – fall Pro 10:10 – but Pro 10:32 – but Pro 12:13 – wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips Pro 17:20 – and he Pro 25:8 – hastily Pro 26:17 – passeth Ecc 10:3 – and he Ecc 10:12 – but Mat 5:22 – fool 1Co 1:11 – that there
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge