Proverbs 27:7

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.] Hunger is the best cook, say the Dutch - the best sauce, say we; experience proves it so: how sweetly doth it season homely cates, coarse fare. {a} Artaxerxes Memor being put to flee for his life, fed hungrily on barley bread, with dried figs, and said he never made a better meal in all his life. Huniades, once driven out of the field by the Turks, and lighting upon a shepherd, craved for God’s sake of him something to eat: who brought him to a poor cottage not far off, causing to be set before him bread and water with a few onions: who in the pleasant remembrance of that passed misery, would often times after in his greatest banquets say, that he never in his life fared better or more daintily than when he supped with this shepherd. {b}

{a} Ieiunus stomachus raro vulgaria temnit. - Horat.

{b} Turk. Hist., fol. 310.

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_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.)

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

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.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 nature—there 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 man’s 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 father’s table, came not only to remember with a longing desire the bread that fed his father’s 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 father’s 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.

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.

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 נ.

7 A satisfied soul treadeth honeycomb under foot;

And a hungry soul - everything bitter is (to it) sweet.

It is unnecessary to read תּבוּז (Hitzig); תּבוּס 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 להּ, 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.

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.)

27:7 Even the best teaching (honey) will be refused if offered at the wrong time. The key to real learning is the receptivity of the student.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 (Luk 1:53), 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.

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

The luxury of wealth confers less happiness than the healthy appetite of labor.

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

(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.

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

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.

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.

As a bird that wandereth from her nest,.... To seek for food for herself and her young; or that leaves it without returning to it, and so her eggs or her young are exposed, and she herself liable to fall into the hands of birds of prey, or of the fowler, when she would be safe in her nest; as there was a law in Israel in her favour, Deu 22:6; or as one that is forced out and obliged to wander from place to place, Isa 16:2;

so is a man that wandereth from his place; who, in time of famine and distress, goes into other parts for bread, as Jacob's sons went down into Egypt; and such are they in a spiritual sense who leave all, and follow Christ for food for their souls; or who are forced to flee from place to place, and wander about in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, because of the persecution of their enemies; or rather it is to be taken in an ill sense and applied to such who abide not in the calling whereunto they are called; dislike, and are unsatisfied with, their present business of life, and seek new employments, which oftentimes is to the hurt and detriment of themselves and families; and also to such who wander from the way of spiritual understanding, from the place of divine worship, from the word, ordinances, and commandments of the Lord; see Pro 21:16.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

The full soul loatheth a honeycomb. For "loathes" the Hebrew is literally "treads upon," "tramples underfoot," which is the expression of the greatest disgust and contempt; or it may mean that the well-fed man will not stoop to pick up the comb which may have dropped in his path from some tree or rock. But whichever way we take it, the same truth is told Self-restraint increases enjoyment; over-indulgence produces satiety, fatigue, and indolence. Horace, "Sat.," 2:2, 38"Jejunus raro stomachus vulgaria temnit.

But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. So the prodigal in the parable would fain fill himself with the husks which the swine did eat. So we say, "Hunger is the best sauce;" the Germans, "Hunger makes raw beans sweet;" and the Portuguese. "Brackish water is sweet in a dry land.

Vers. 7, 8. The blessing of contentment.

I THE CONTENTED MIND. (Ver. 7) "Enough is as good as a feast;" "Hunger is the best sauce." To know when we are well off is the cure for the canker of envy and discontent. Deprivation for a time teaches us the need of common blessings. The good of affliction is that it brings us nearer to God; and of poverty of spirit, that it is never without food.

II THE EVIL OF RESTLESSNESS. (Ver. 8) "The rolling stone gathers no moss." Rarely does the wanderer better his condition. Unstable as water, he doth not excel. Those who seek satisfaction for the soul out of God are like those who wander into far country, like the prodigal. "O my wandering ways! Woe to the soul which presumed, if it departed from thee, that it should find anything better! I turned on every side, and all things were hard, and thou alone wast my Rest. Thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and our heart is restless till it finds rest in thee. J.

Superabundance and scarcity.

We have here

I A FAMILIAR FACT OF OUR PHYSICAL NATURE. Those who are well fed become very choice and dainty, while those who "lack bread" are thankful for the coarsest food. There are thousands of the sons and daughters of luxury whose appetite can hardly be tempted; for them cookery has to be developed into one of the fine arts, and nothing is palatable to their exquisite taste but delicacies. Living within five minutes" walk of their residence, and sometimes smelling the odours that come from their kitchens, are poor, pinched, struggling men and women, who will devour with great delight the first soiled crust that is offered them. There are thousands in our great cities that weigh long and seriously the question what nice beverage they shall drink at their table; and there are to be found those who would gladly quench their thirst in the first foul water they can find. Indulgence makes all things tasteless, while want makes all things sweet to us.

II A CORRESPONDING TRUTH IN OUR MORAL NATURE.

1. Superabundance tends to selfishness and ingratitude. We are apt to imagine that we have a prescriptive right to that which is continued to us for any time; and as soon as it is withdrawn we murmur and rebel. There are no more thankless, no more querulous hearts to be found anywhere than in the homes of the affluent, than among those who can command all that their hearts desire. They find no pleasure in what they have, and they give God no thanks for it.

2. On the other hand, scarcity is very frequently associated with contentment and piety. When our resources are not so large and full that we do not stop to ask ourselves whence they come, when some solicitude or even anxiety leads us to look prayerfully to the great "Giver of all," then we recognize the truth that everything we are and everything we have, the cup itself and all that it holds, all our powers and all our possessions, are of God, and our hearts fill with gratitude to our heavenly Father. And thus it is not exceptionally but representatively and commonly true that"Some murmur when their sky is clear And wholly bright to view, If one small speck of dark appear In their great heaven of blue. And some with thankful love are filled. If but one streak of light, One ray of God"s good mercy, gild The darkness of their night. "In palaces are hearts that ask, In discontent and pride, Why life is such a dreary task, And all good things denied. And hearts, in poorest huts, admire How love has, in their aid Love that not ever seems to tire Such rich provision made. (Trench)

III ITS APPLICATION TO CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE. Here we have:

1. The peril of abundance. We are tempted to become indifferent to that which we can employ and enjoy at any time, and consequently to neglect it.

2. The compensation of scarcity. That which is often out of reach, of which we can only occasionally avail ourselves, we appreciate at its true worth.

Hence, while persecuted Christians have been willing to walk many miles to take part in the worship of God, or to give large sums of money for a few pages if Scripture, those who live in the full light of privilege are negligent of the sanctuary and the Word of God. This will apply to prayer, to praise, to Christian work, to Christian fellowship. C.

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

This is true, as regards the enjoyments of this life. Abundance, instead of increasing the happiness of the possessor, deprives him of the rest, which often belongs to a more scanty portion. (Ecc 5:11 .) The man, whose appetite is cloyed with indulgence, turns with disgust from the sweetest dainties; while every bitter and distasteful thing is keenly relished by the hungry soul, perhaps just saved from starvation.†1 This healthful appetite is one of the many counterbalancing advantages of poverty. The stated epicure might well envy the luxury of a homely meal. Israel, after "eating angels’ food to the full," loathed and trod it under foot as "light bread."†2

And is not this so in spiritual things? The Laodicean professor — "rich and increased in goods, and having need of nothing" — loathes the honeycomb of the gospel.†3 Christ in his bitter "sorrow is nothing to him, while he passeth by." (Lam 1:12 .) His love excites no tenderness; his hope no interest. "The consolations of God are small," of little account, "with him." (Job 15:11 .) He can spare them without sensible loss. He reads the Bible only to carp at its most precious truths; offensive, as implying a ruin, of which, he has no apprehension, and which he has no heart to contemplate. Thus he nauseates the most nourishing food; having no relish, because he feels no need. Another case presents itself, not less affecting. "Fullness of bread" — richness of spiritual ordinances — does not always bring its corresponding appetite. May not satiety be as great a curse as famine? Is it not fearfully written upon many a Christian professor — The full soul loatheth the honeycomb?

Far more enviable is the hungry soul, feeding upon unpalatable truths; yea — welcoming even bitter dispensations, as medicine for the soul’s health. (Psa 119:67, Psa 119:71 .) And is not the sweet of the gospel known by this bitterness? Does not this bitterness make Christ sweet to the soul. A sinner in all his guilt; a Savior in his perfect merit and love — well does the one answer to the other. Every view of Christ embitters sin. Every view of sin endears Christ. Nor is there any terror in the conviction, that thus endears the Savior. Rather does it prepare the way for a solid confidence in the glad tidings of the gospel.

What then is the pulse of my religion? Am I willing to receive the word in its full completeness — the bitter as well as the sweet? Do I love its humbling spirituality, its self-denying requirements, subordinating every desire to an unreserved obedience to my God; ready to walk in his narrowest path, to have my most secret corruption exposed; to have my conscience laid open to the "sharp piercing of the two-edged sword"? (Heb 4:12 .) Oh! may my soul be preserved in this vigorous devotedness!

Footnotes:

†1 Job 6:7. Luk 15:16-17 .

’Jejunus stomachus raro vulgaria temnit.’

Hor. lib. ii. Sat. ii. 38.

†2 Psa 78:25. Num 11:4-20 ; Num 21:5 .

†3 Rev 3:17-18. Mat 9:12 . Rom 9:30-31 .

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

A person who has eaten to the full

"A person who is satisfied" or "A person who has eaten enough to be full"

rejects even a honeycomb

A honeycomb would normally be desirable, but not to the person who has already eaten enough to be satisfied.

every bitter thing is sweet

"everything that is bitter tastes sweet"

Like a bird that wanders from its nest is a man who strays from where he lives

The words "wanders" and "strays" mean the same thing in this verse. (See: Simile)

translationWords

honey

life

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

tramples honeycomb Heb. תבוס, tramples by foot, as in (Ps. 44:6): “we will trample (נבוס) those who rise up against us.”

all bitter is sweet Every sweet thing is bitter to it. This can be interpreted in regard to the study of the Torah. If one shows himself to be sated, that he has no desire for words of the Torah as a desire of his soul, he tramples honeycomb. [That is,] even the reasons that are acceptable to the heart are not important to him, but he who yearns for it, even the things that come to him with bitterness and toil are sweet to him.

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.