Proverbs 26:9 Commentary and Bible Study

Solomon in this proverb closes off another way of escape for the fool. He cannot adopt the language of the wise and hope to thereby become wise himself. In fact, any attempt to do so will result in his own hurt. The drunkard has numbed his senses as a result of his habit. He cannot walk uprightly with any confidence and is about to fall at any moment. When he does fall, he instinctively puts out his hand to save himself, but he has not noticed that he is about to fall into a thorn bush, and his hand is pierced by sharp thorns. However because his senses are dulled, he does not feel even this pain as he ought to. This drunken behaviour is made a picture of the attempt by the fool to handle a proverb or a parable. Solomon does not say that a parable in the ear of the fool is like the drunk man and the thorn, but rather a parable in the mouth of the fool. The fool is speaking here, not listening. As he speaks he does himself harm. How so, when the things that he is speaking are in themselves good?First, because there is an inevitable hypocrisy in all he says. When he speaks of righteousness he condemns himself because he falls short of his own words. He shows that he knows better than he does, therefore the punishment of his folly will be just. When he speaks of true religion he increases his guilt because he shows he is not without light and therefore has no excuse. But what he knows he knows only in his head and his heart has not been obedient to the truth. He knows the truth but he does not live it, and therefore his sin is wilful and all the more to be blamed. We could think of the Pharisees in their opposition to Christ. The attacked him with the Scriptures showing that they knew them, but they did not enter into the kingdom of heaven themselves, so that the word in their mouth revealed the pride in their hearts with greater clarity. The proverb is the thorn that goes up into the hand of the fool and pierces him when he tries to use it.