Proverbs 26:17-27

17 You grab a mad dog by the ears when you butt into a quarrel that's none of your business.

18 People who shrug off deliberate deceptions, saying, "I didn't mean it, I was only joking,"

19 Are worse than careless campers who walk away from smoldering campfires.

20 When you run out of wood, the fire goes out; when the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down.

21 A quarrelsome person in a dispute is like kerosene thrown on a fire.

22 Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy; do you want junk like that in your belly?

23 Smooth talk from an evil heart is like glaze on cracked pottery.

24 Your enemy shakes hands and greets you like an old friend, all the while conniving against you.

25 When he speaks warmly to you, don't believe him for a minute; he's just waiting for the chance to rip you off.

26 No matter how cunningly he conceals his malice, eventually his evil will be exposed in public.

27 Malice backfires; spite boomerangs.

Proverbs 26:17-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 13

In this chapter is an account of a man of God being sent to exclaim against Jeroboam's altar, and threaten its destruction, of which he gave a sign, which was accomplished, and with it the withering of the king's hand, which was healed upon the prophet's prayer for him, 1Ki 13:1-7, who would have entertained him at his house, but he refused the offer, and departed, 1Ki 13:8-10, but an old prophet in Bethel hearing of him, rode after him, and fetched him back to eat bread with him, through a lie he told him, 1Ki 13:11-19 upon which the word came to the old prophet, threatening the man of God with death for disobeying his command, and which was accordingly executed by a lion that met him in the way, and slew him, 1Ki 13:20-24, of which the old prophet being informed, went and took up his carcass, and buried it in his own sepulchre, where he charged his sons to bury him also when dead, believing that all the man of God had said would be fulfilled, 1Ki 13:25-30 and the chapter is closed with observing the continuance of Jeroboam in his idolatry, 1Ki 13:33,34.