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Proverbs 26:22-26

Proverbs 26:22-26

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am by Peter Leithart

Proverbs 26:22-26 2017-09-07T00:03:40+06:00 Peter Leithart

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PROVERBS 26:22

Language is a constant theme of the Proverbs. Wisdom is skill, and one of the central skills a wise person must learn is skill in speech. This skill has not only to do with speaking the truth, but even more with questions of tone and timing. Wisdom is like having a sense of rhythm, learning God’s ways and words well enough to lean into the next step at just the right time. Wisdom in words is like being a stand-up comedian, understanding timing.

Several of the proverbs in chapter 26 are about proper speech, and the effect of wrong sorts of speech in stirring up contention and strife. In verse 20, the speech of a “whisperer” or a “gossiper” is compared to the wood that stokes up a fire, and in verse 22 Solomon returns to this character, the whisperer. While verse 20 compares the words of a whisperer to fuel, verse 22 focuses more on the pleasure of the whisperer’s words.

Human beings love secrets. There is something thrilling in being “in the know” about something that no one else knows. Secrets and secrecy are not in themselves evil. God Himself has secrets (Deuteronomy 29:29), and in the Old Testament some of the most desirable things are hidden away in holy places – that is to say, restricted places. There is a time for whispering: Jesus whispers things into the ears of His disciples. But those things are whispered now in order to be shouted out later. In the gospel, Paul says that the great “mystery” or “secret” that Yahweh had held close to his chest for centuries is now revealed. Having secrets, having something “inside” us that doesn’t show on the “outside,” or having something known by an “inside group” that “outsiders” don’t know – this is, perhaps, inherent in our being images of God. The issue with secrets is the issue with all forms of wisdom, especially wisdom in speech. The question is timing and rhythm: Who should know the secret? When? God has perfect timing: In the “fullness of time,” He reveals His secrets, and in doing so turns the world inside out.

A whisperer is full of secrets, and he passes on those secrets to bolster his own reputation, to gather an “inner ring” with him at the center, to stir up contention that will serve some purpose. Think of the member of an administration to leaks information to the press, or think of the writers of gossip columns. They are consummate whisperers.

The focus of verse 22, though, is not so much on the whisperer as on the reaction of those who listen to him. Solomon is not talking about the writers of gossip columns so much as the readers. For his hearers, the whisperer’s secrets are “dainty morsels” that come out of his inner being and go down into the inner being of his hearers. The word for “dainty morsel” is used only here and in the parallel proverb in 18:8, and seems to be derived from a word that means to swallow or gulp down, and also to refer to “greed” or “gluttony.” The word in Hebrew ( laham ) is perhaps a pun on the word for “bread” ( lechem ). People are greedy for whispered words; for many, it is as desirable, and as much a staple, as bread.

My friend and colleague Toby Sumpter points out: “These words go down to the ‘chamber room’ of the ‘belly/womb.’ This suggests several implications: First, the words of the whisperer can come to color our ability to judge and reason rightly. If they are allowed to take up residence in our ‘chamber room,’ in our seat of judgment, then they are being invited to be counselors. We are seating them with dignity and honor that they do not deserve. And this can happen with or without our knowledge. Second, the chamber room of the ‘womb’ suggests a pregnancy metaphor. Allowing the words of a whisperer into our ‘womb’ suggests infidelity and promiscuity with the end result of fathering the bastard children of the whisperer. Just as wisdom is justified by her children, folly is damned by hers.”

Two further glosses on this. First, the imagery of “chamber” or “bedchamber” or “inner chamber” depends on a metaphorical connection between a human being and a house. This is an important fundamental metaphor in the Bible, especially worked out in relation to the tabernacle and temple. As the Spirit dwelt in the tabernacle, so now the Spirit dwells in us; as the priests guarded the entry ways to the temple, so we are to put a guard on our eyes, ears, lips, nose, so that nothing defiling enters; as the inner sanctuary of the temple is to be consecrated and clean, so is our heart to be pure. We need to be careful about allowing whispered words into our chambers, because they will have an effect.

Second, the specific part of the inner “house” that these dainties go into is the “belly,” which Toby notes is the same word for “womb.” Words enter our ears, and they implant themselves in our inner chambers, and they produce something. Words fertilize what is in our hearts, and something begins to form. Though he is not talking about language, James uses this kind of conception-birth imagery to describe the process of temptation: We are tempted when we are carried away by our own evil desires, and once desire has conceived it gives birth to sin, and sin in the end produces death (James 1:12-15). That is the death-cycle of sin. Based on this proverb, we could add that the desire is awakened by the words of a whisperer, and these words conceive and give birth to sin. The alternative is to let the word of God dwell in us richly, so that Christ is formed in us (Galatians 4:19). God has whispered his secret into our ears so that, like Mary, we can become full of Christ.

PROVERBS 26:23

The precise force of this comparison becomes evident when we recognize that both sides of the simile are double. On the one hand, there is a “potsherd” covered with “silver dross,” and on the other hand we have “burning lips” and a “heart of evil.” The potsherd is like the evil heart, while the burning lips are like silver dross. On the surface, the point is that covering over the earthiness of a vessel with silver dross makes the pot look finer, but the pot is still a pot of earth and even the silver patina is made from the refuse of silver. So also, burning lips – perhaps passionate speeches or professions – can shine up a wicked heart, but such words do not add anything of value. The wicked heart is still a wicked heart, and by brightening itself with burning words it only adds hypocrisy
to its other evils.

Examining the specific wording deepens our grasp of the comparison. Earthen pots are fragile and of low value (Psalm 22:15; Isaiah 45:9), but they also make appropriate symbols for human beings. Human beings are earthenware pots – we are made of earth, and we are large and flexible containers, both physically and spiritually. Physically, we are pots full of organs and blood and fluids, and spiritually we are containers for whatever we let into our inner chambers and whatever is “conceived” in the womb of our hearts (see v. 22). Human beings are created to be earthen vessels that contain a weight of glory (cf. Paul’s use of this image in 2 Corinthians 4:7ff). But the man in the proverb is “earthenware” all the way down, as it were. He is not a container of precious things. The only precious thing he has is the covering of silver, and that’s silver’s dross.

The word for “burning” is sometimes associated with fire, and translated as “kindle” or “inflame” (cf. Isaiah 5:11; Ezekiel 24:10). More often, though, the word means “pursue” (Genesis 31:36; 1 Samuel 17:53), and this notion of “hot pursuit” is sometimes connected with persecution (Psalm 7:13; 10:2; Lamentations 4:19). Persecutors are those who hotly pursue the righteous, seeking to burn and destroy them. Given this usage, the image of “burning lips” connotes lips and words that pursue and persecute. That might suggest lips that express burning love and passion, but it might also be persecuting and pursuing words. The silver dross covering consists of words that flame out, shine, and flash, words that inflame and stir up contention and encourage pursuit of the righteous. Burning lips are themselves ambiguous; one could have a tongue on fire for righteousness, lips purged and burning because they have been lit by a coal from the altar of Yahweh. Or, they could be burning with passion for persecution. Either way, if these burning words are only a drossy covering, they do nothing to improve the wicked heart that produces them.

Finally, the word “lip” is worth musing on for a moment. Though it can refer to speech in general, lips are sometimes associated with religious speech and confession (I am following James Jordan here). Circumcision is sometimes conceived of as being applied to “lips” (Exodus 6:12, 30), and lips are the place where vows emerge (Numbers 30:6, 8, 12; Psalm 89:34; 119:13). If we understand the proverb in this way, the hypocrisy is more precisely religious hypocrisy: Wicked hearts that overlay their wickedness with lips that burn with passionate professions of faith or burn with zeal for eliminating unrighteousness and impurity. Zeal is good, a good fire, but zeal can easily become dross that masks the earthiness and fleshliness of our deepest motives.

PROVERBS 26:24-26

Verses 24-25 describe the same hypocrisy as verse 23, but in more straightforward language. In the Hebrew, the proverb is set out in a parallelism:

In his hating he makes strange his lips

And in his inner parts he sets up deceit.

The hating is thus associated with the inner parts, and the lips express the deceit that is in the inner man.

The verb “disguises” in verse 24 means “to be strange or alien,” and is related to the noun used for “foreigner” or “stranger” (Genesis 17:12, 27; Exodus 12:43; Leviticus 22:25; Deuteronomy 32:12). It is often translated as “know” or “recognize,” but in a few places it has the connotation of “disguise.” The verb is used twice in Genesis 42:7: Joseph “knew” his brothers and “made himself known to them” with rough words; he is disclosing himself, but disclosing himself behind a veil of harsh talk. Or, he “knew” his brothers but “made himself strange” to them by his speech. His words did not express his true feelings; he made himself appear to be an alien, a supercilious Egyptian official. Jeroboam’s wife likewise makes herself strange when she goes to visit the prophet Ahijah (1 Kings 14:5-6). In hating, the man makes his lips a stranger to his heart; but hatred also means that lips speak alienating and strange things.

The second line of the Proverb uses an interesting image. By disjoining lips and inner being, the hater is storing up something in his inner parts, but what he stores up is “deceit.” There is a feedback loop going here: It begins in the inner being, with hatred; in his hatred, a man speaks strange or hypocritical things with his lips; by speaking with his lips, he is storing up something besides hatred in his inner parts, he is storing up fraud and deceit, and this can only reinforce the hypocrisy of his lips. Hatred leads to hypocrisy which leads to more deception. Haters are, in the end, full of deceit – full of lies to others and full of self-deceit. Hatred blinds.

To this analysis of the workings of hatred, Solomon adds a warning not to take the words of a hater at face value. He may make his voice gracious, but the wise man cannot assent to it – he must not pronounce an “Amen.” Underneath the words of grace and compassion is a heart full of abominations. Abomination is a Levitical term that is sometimes associated with the idolatries and impurities that are found in the sanctuaries of Israel. An “abomination of desolation” is an abominable practice that brings desolation to the sanctuary. A man with “seven abominations” in his heart is like a house full of abominations, and he too will be left desolate. Solomon may be alluding back to the seven abominations of Proverbs 6:16-19, and the seven abominations recall also the seven demons that inhabit the man in Jesus’ parable who has been exorcised. Instead of seven abominations, our hearts should be filled with the seven Spirits of the Lord. Seven is number of fullness, and also the number of creation and Sabbath rest. A sevenfold abomination is a de-creating abomination that has found a place to relax in the heart of the hater.

Yet, Solomon doesn’t think that the disguises and lies and strange vestments of the hypocrite and the hater can remain forever. In the congregation, the hater will be “uncovered” and “made naked.” We can comment on this in two directions. First, the verb “uncovered” means, on the surface, that the true motives and desires of haters will be uncovered. But the word is often used for exposure of shame, and particularly with sexual transgression. Shame is defeat and humiliation, not just the
emotion of embarrassment. Solomon predicts that the hater cannot maintain his glossy exterior forever. He will be exposed, defeated, ashamed.

Second, this will happen in the “assembly” (Heb. qahal ). Typically, this word is used for liturgical assemblies; it is the OT equivalent of ekklesia , church. As Psalms 37 and 73 say, the end of the wicked will be evident at the sanctuary, when the people of God assemble for worship. The word might also refer to a judicial assembly, and thus the hope would be that the hater would be exposed for his deceit and hypocrisy in such an assembly. Ultimately, these two are identical, because the liturgical assembly is an assembly in the presence of the Judge of all, who sifts and winnows in worship.

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