“If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.” [Proverbs 17:13] The most disgusting characters in fiction, I find, are the traitors. Adulterers, turncoats, false friends, they induce a concentrated hatred and revulsion; they have in them something which mere murder, mere villainy, cannot match. Whether they are parents who…
Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly. [Proverbs 17:12] How pleasant is it to taunt an angry mama bear? 10 out of 10 corpses say: “Not very.” It’s definitively a Bad Idea. Yet the author of the proverb considers it the smaller risk, smaller…
An evil man seeks only rebellion, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him. [Proverbs 17:11] We sometimes wonder at the persistent evil of other men. We watch men act in ways that seem deliberately foolish, deliberately self-destructive, deliberately and causelessly malicious. We find ourselves wondering at the sheer impertinence of the wicked,…
“A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.” [Proverbs 17:10] Learning from reproof is a skill not natural to any of us. Sure, we, by the grace of God, have a habit of listening to certain people with at least some consideration- parent, sibling, spouse, friend-…
Proverbs 17:9 ESV Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A9&version=ESV] Relationships are complicated, it turns out. Take two people, multiply their issues by each other, overlap their peculiarities, interface their schedules, add in their other relationships, and it quickly becomes clear that gears are going…
Proverbs 17:8 ESV A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A8&version=ESV] Proverbs is a book about wisdom, and sometimes that means recognizing the facts of life. Bribery may not be pretty, but it is a part of the world around…
Proverbs 17:7 ESV Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a prince. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A7&version=ESV] I can write real good. I can talk nice too, when I keep my nerve. That’s all well and good, but it’s not enough. If I have all the skill in the world but…
Proverbs 17:6 ESV Americans have a cultural disrespect for familial glory. We have cultivated an attitude which says that one should have pleasure only in one’s own achievements. Taking pride in the lives of our elders, those who live and those who have died, is positively old-fashioned and silly. It’s stuck-up, too, a way of…
Proverbs 17:5 ESV Contempt for the poor is an American past-time. It’s the basic premise of the welfare state, which relies on bribing the unfortunate; it underlies the cries of ‘democracy’ which actually mean ‘do what your betters tell you to do.’ We idolize the poor, make them incapable of sin, and thus we make…
Proverbs 17:4 ESV An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue. [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+17%3A4&version=ESV] “Lies, damned lies, and statistics,” these are the components which too often seem both warp and weft of history, of the world around us. In our own lives, we hear lies; worse, at times, we…