Proverbs 26:13-23

13 ¹The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!"

14 As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.

15 ²The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.

16 The sluggard is ³wiser in his own eyes ⁴than seven men who can answer sensibly.

17 Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.

18 Like a madman who throws ⁵firebrands, arrows, and death

19 is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, "I am only joking!"

20 For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no ⁶whisperer, ⁷quarreling ceases.

21 As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is ⁸a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

22 ⁹The words of ¹⁰a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

23 ¹¹Like the ¹²glaze^[a] covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart.

Proverbs 26:13-23 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.

Cross References

• 1. Proverbs 22:13
• 2. Proverbs 19:24
• 3. [See ver. 12 above]
• 4. [ver. 25; Proverbs 6:16]; See Job 5:19
• 5. [Isaiah 50:11]
• 6. Proverbs 16:28
• 7. Proverbs 22:10
• 8. See Proverbs 15:18
• 9. Proverbs 18:8
• 10. [See ver. 20 above]
• 11. [Matthew 23:27; Luke 11:39]
• 12. See Proverbs 25:4

Footnotes

• [a]. By revocalization; Hebrew silver of dross