Proverbs 26:10

The great God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool, and rewardeth transgressors. THE GREAT (GOD), THAT FORMED ALL (THINGS), BOTH REWARDETH THE FOOL AND REWARDETH TRANSGRESSORS - giving them respectively their due punishment. Maurer takes it, 'An archer (as the Hebrew, rab, means in ) wounding all, is both be who hires a fool and he who hires those passing by' indiscriminately. Gesenius takes it, 'The master (the master artist) forms all things well; but if one (in that position) hires a fool, he also hires transgressors.' Mercer, 'A great man (if he be a bad man) affects all with pain, and gives hire to the fool, and gives hire to transgressors' to aid him in his tyranny. The English version is simplest....

Verse Proverbs 26:10. _THE GREAT_ GOD _THAT FORMED ALL_ THINGS] See the _margin_, where this verse is very differently translated. I shall add that of _Coverdale_: "A man of experience discerneth all thinges well: but whoso hyreth a foole, hyreth soch one as wyl take no hede." The רב _rab_ may mean either the great God, or a great man: hence the two renderings, in the _text_ and in the _margin_....

The word “God” is not in the original, and the adjective translated “great” is never used elsewhere absolutely in that sense. The simplest and best interpretation is: As the archer that woundeth everyone, so is he who hireth the fool, and he who hireth every passerby. Acting at random, entrusting matters of grave moment to men of bad repute, is as likely to do mischief as to shoot arrows at everyone....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 26:1 Certain proverbs concerning the fool (_kesil_),_ _with the exception, perhaps, of Proverbs 26:2 (see on Proverbs 1:22). PROVERBS 26:1 AS SNOW IN SUMMER, AND AS RAIN IN HARVEST. Snow in summer would be quite unnatural and unheard of (see on Proverbs 25:13). Rain falls in the usual course of things only at stated times; whence arose the phrase of "the early and of latter rains" (see on...

THE GREAT [GOD], THAT FORMED ALL [THINGS],.... That made the heavens, earth, and sea, and all that are in them; who is great in the perfections of his nature, and in the works of his hands, and greatly to be praised; BOTH REWARDETH THE FOOL, AND REWARDETH TRANSGRESSORS; according to their works; every transgression of the law receiving its just recompence of reward, whether a man transgresses it ignorantly or wilfully; as his transgressions are, whether through error or presumption, so shall his punishment be; though some understand this, as Kimchi, of the Lord's doing good in a providential way, to the wise and unwise, the righteous and the wicked: the words are by some rendered to another sense, "a great one grieveth all, and he hireth the fool, and he hireth the transgressors" y; that is, a great man, a tyrannical prince, grieves all his good subjects; or, as Hottinger z, from the us...

CHAPTER 26 CONCERNING THE FOOL AND THE SLUGGARD Eleven times we meet the word fool in this chapter. Three different words are used in the Hebrew for fool. The first is “avil” which signifies weakness. The second word “kesil” occurs nearly fifty times, means fat or dense. The third word is the Hebrew “nabal,” which is derived from the verb to fade, or to wither; it means a vulgar, bad man who has given himself over to wickedness. The natural man in his condition, his darkened mind, his sinfulness answers to much that is said about the fool in this book. As snow in summer and rain at harvest time are quiteimpossible in Palestine, so is honor for a fool. A fool may utter a curse, as they often do, and wish something evil, but being causeless, it will not be fulfilled. The fool needs correction, the stripes for his back, he deserves no answer, and if he is answered it must be according to hi...

THE BOOK OF FOOLS. A section containing a series of synthetic couplets dealing with folly (except Proverbs 26:2). The text is unusually corrupt and defective. PROVERBS 26:1. For the opposite use of snow in harvest _cf._ Proverbs 25:13 *. Proverbs 26:2. Directed against the superstitious belief in the magical value of a curse. The simile refers to the aimless wandering of a bird, and is not to be compared with the flying roll of curses in Zechariah 5:1....

THE GREAT GOD, &C. Render: "A master [workman] formeth all himself aright: but he that hireth. fool, hireth. transgressor [who will spoil the work]. " REWARDETH. Hebrew. _sakar,_ to hire....

The number and variety of interpretations which have been given to this verse justify the remark of R.V. marg. that "The Hebrew is obscure." The rendering of R.V. text is: As _an archer_(comp. Job 16:13, where the same Heb. word is so rendered) _that woundeth all, so is he that hireth the fool_and he that _hireth them that pass by_. But the objection to this is that instead of _the fool_being the main subject, as he is in all this group of proverbs, he is out of place, and the introduction of him mars the symmetry of the proverb, which should run: As an archer who wounds every one within his reach, friend and foe alike, so is a master who hires all who pass by, good workman and bad indifferently. For this reason, if for no other, the rendering of R.V. margin is to be preferred: A MASTER-WORKER FORMETH ALL THINGS (we may supply in thought, either (1) and in order t

THE GREAT GOD THAT FORMED ALL THINGS— There is a great diversity of opinion respecting this verse. Mr. Peters says, that _formed all_ is the same as forming the universe, and parallel to Isaiah 44:24.; and if so, our rendering is as unexceptionable as any. Houbigant has it, _The fool and the drunkard imagine great things: the fool and the drunkard pass over the sea:_ That is, in the folly and pride of imagination. See his note, and also Schultens....