Like clouds and wind without rain
is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.
With patience a ruler may be persuaded,
and a soft tongue will break a bone.
If you have found honey, eat only enough for you,
lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.
Let your foot be seldom in your neighbour's house,
lest he have his fill of you and hate you.
A man who bears false witness against his neighbour
is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.
Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble
is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.
Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart
is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day,
and like vinegar on soda.Proverbs 25:14-20
The theme in 14 is that of promises not kept. The RSV's 'man who boasts of a gift he does not give' is an eloquent translation. It is when we promise God our loyalty and our love and our substance and withhold it, that spiritual abortion takes place. Kidner's comment on 15 could hardly be bettered: 'The quality that is praised is a refusal to be provoked, and the point is that so unassuming a weapon may win surprising victories'. In 16 one commentator suggests that 'honey' stands here as the symbol of natural gifts and blessings: which God has given us richly to enjoy. We must not be brought under the power of any of them, however, as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 6:12. God's gifts are for use, not abuse; and when inordinate desire for however legitimate an object lays hold upon men, trouble always ensues. A parallel idea is expressed in 17, the connecting link being the word 'filled' (the AV marginal reading in 17 for 'weary'). How prone we are to take advantage of others' goodness of heart! Our writer is very 'down-to-earth' in his observations of life. In 18 bearing false witness is shown as the deadly dangerous thing it really is; the metaphors used give some indication of just how much and how many different kinds of damage can be done. The continual, nagging pain that a broken tooth gives is an apt metaphor to describe the hurt one experiences when a trust has been betrayed. The metaphors in 20 are very graphic, especially the second one, vinegar or nitre (or soda). The effect of the acid on the alkali is to make it fizz, and this is precisely the effect of heartless, superficial jollity on a sorrowful, broken heart. It is true that some who are sorry for themselves need to be laughed out of their self-pity; but real sorrow needs compassion and understanding. How needful, therefore, to have discernment to distinguish the two!