Proverbs 26:27 Commentary and Bible Study

As so often the proverb is elliptical and only makes sense in its unstated context. It refers to a specific situation without mentioning all the details, and leaves the reader to work out what that situation is. The theme is strife and therefore both the digging of the pit and the rolling of the stone must be seen as hostile acts designed to cause harm to another. A pit was dug to trap an animal. It was positioned in the middle of a path where the creature was bound to tread and it was skilfully covered over with sticks and debris, so that it could not be seen and the animal unsuspectingly puts it weight on it and fell into the concealed pit beneath. An animal caught in this way found itself in a pit which was so deep that it was impossible to climb out. However in this case the pit, either literal or metaphorical, was designed to catch human beings. The stone was set rolling at the top of a slope towards those whom it was intended to injure. By the time it reached its target it was moving so fast that it would do a great deal of damage. In both cases God’s justice operates with great skill to bring on the perpetrator the very thing he intended to do to others. This retribution is sometimes mixed with grace and sometimes not according to the sovereign will of God. The one who digs the pit falls into it, perhaps by literally forgetting where he dug it and going along the road absentmindedly. The one who rolls a stone finds by some mishap that the action he initiated sets in motion a chain of events that results in his own destruction. If God commands us, ‘Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them’ (Matthew 7:12), then it is right and just that when we intend hurt to others the same is likewise done to us. In this sense, men choose their own punishments, and God implements them for them as the following Scriptures teach: How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her (Revelation 18:7); Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you (2 Thessalonians 1:6); For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand (Revelation 19:2).An example of this from Scripture would be Absalom’s hateful rebellion against his father, David, for his vanity ended with his undignified hanging from a tree, and his attempted patricide led to his own death as a traitor. On the other hand, the cruel treatment of Joseph by his brothers resulted in their coming to him to plead for food, and their bowing down before him to spare their lives. In this case God’s grace did not allow the situation to end there, but brought about their humbling and forgiveness, at least by Joseph.