Proverbs 18:6

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} By his desire upon others; but by desert and effect upon himself.

{a} Vehementer doleo, quia vehementer diligo. Atque sit cum maesto vultu, oculis demissis, cum quadam tarditate et vocis plangitu procedit maledictio. - Bernard.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 neighbour’s house without singeing so much as a hair of his own head, no fool’s 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 slanders—the 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.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The quarrelsome bring trouble on themselves. Their rash language ensnares them (Pro 6:2).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(6) His mouth calleth for strokes, which he provokes by his insolence and quarrelsomeness.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Pro 26:3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The first verse speaks of the immediate, the others of the remote, results of the “fool’s” 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 man’s nature.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Quarrels. Hebrew, "blows." Septuagint, "death;" (ver. 7.) which are the usual consequences of quarrels.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

A fool’s 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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A fool"s lips enter into contention; literally, come with quarrel; (comp. Psa_66:13) i.e. they lead him into strife and quarrels; miscent se rixis, Vulgate; "lead him into evils," Septuagint. The foolish man meddles with disputes in which he is not concerned, and by his silly interference not only exposes himself to reprisals, but also exacerbates the original difficulty. His mouth calleth for strokes. His words provoke severe punishment, "stripes for his back," as it is said in Pro_19:29. Septuagint, "His mouth which is audacious calls for death."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 בּוא ב, 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 בּוא בדמים: to be engaged in bloodshed, Sa1 25:26. We prefer this intrant (ingerunt se), with Schultens and Fleischer. יבאוּ for תּבאנה, 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 (קרא ל, 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 (פיו ההמה מות יקרא); למהלמות has, in codd. and old editions, the Mem raphatum, as also at 19:29; the sing. is thus מהלוּם, like מנוּל to מנעליו, for the Mem dagessatum is to be expected in the inflected מהלם, by the passing over of the ō into ǔ.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

It is not a little remarkable, that the Apostle, when giving the anatomy of man’s depravity, should dwell chiefly upon "the little member" with all its accompaniments — the throat — the tongue — the lips — the mouth. (Rom 3:13-14 .) Such a world of iniquity is it, defiling the whole body! (Jas 3:6 .) We often see its mischief to others; here is the mischief to the man himself. The fool’s lips enter into contention. This is folly indeed. The wise man may be drawn into it by infirmity of temper,†1 or by the force of circumstances.†2 But "as much as in him lies, he will live peaceably with all men,"†3 quenching even the first rising of contention.†4 The fool enters into it, by intermeddling needlessly with strife,†5 or wilfully stirring it up,†6 ’like the alarum of war, and drums beating up to the battle.’†7 And thus he makes a rod for himself.†8 He puts a weapon into the hands of Satan, with which to beat his own head, and hammers him with fearful strokes.†9 The wilful contention of the men of Succoth and Penuel with Gideon called for strokes.†10 The mouth of the little children was their merited destruction.†11 The slanderous lips of Daniel’s persecutors were the snare of their soul.†12 There is no need to dig a pit for the fool. He digs it for himself.†13 The mouths of wild beasts devour each other. The fool’s mouth is his own destruction.†14 The fowler’s snare is not wanted; for "he is snared by the transgression of his lips." (Pro 12:13 .) He is not only the cause, but the agent of his own destruction.

And shall not the child of God watch in godly fear, lest his folly should call for his Father’s stroke? Sharply may he "hew" by the sword. (Hos 6:5 .) He may be as if he would seem to kill, in order to make alive. All this is, that he may embitter sin, and endear returning mercy. Always is it wise and gracious love, as one of the Father’s says — ’threatening, that he may not strike: and striking, that he may not destroy.’ If shewing the rod will effect the purpose, gladly will he forbear to strike. But if our folly — as Leighton speaks — ’pulls punishment out of his hands.’†15 whom but ourselves have we to thank for the smart?

Footnotes:

†1 Act 15:39.

†2 Gen 13:8.

†3 Rom 12:18; Rom 14:19 .

†4 Pro 17:14.

†5 Pro 20:3; Pro 26:17 .

†6 Pro 16:27-28.

†7 Cartwright in loco.

†8 Pro 14:3; Pro 19:19, Pro 19:29 .

†9 Pro 26:21.

†10 Jdg 8:4-17.

†11 2Ki 2:23-24 .

†12 Dan 6:13.

†13 Psa 7:15; Psa 64:8 .

†14 Pro 10:8, Pro 10:14 ; Pro 13:3 . Ecc 10:12-13 .

†15 Works, v. 114.

Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

v. 6. A fool’s lips enter into contention, bring on a quarrel, and his mouth calleth for strokes, he challenges and provokes the punishment which strikes him.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The lips of a fool will enter a quarrel All his matters come about with an expression of quarreling.

and his mouth calls out for blows He calls pains to come upon himself.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.