Proverbs 26:23

Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross. BURNING LIPS (LIPS PROFESSING BURNING LOVE) AND A WICKED HEART (UNDERNEATH) (ARE LIKE) A POTSHERD COVERED WITH SILVER DROSS - a fragment of common earthenware covered with silver full of dross....

Verse Proverbs 26:23. _BURNING LIPS AND A WICKED HEART_] Splendid, shining, smooth lips; that is, lips which make great professions of friendship are like a _vessel plated_ over with _base metal_ to make it resemble _silver_; but it is only a _vile pot_, and even the _outside_ is not _pure_....

BURNING LIPS - i. e., “Lips glowing with, affection, uttering warm words of love,” joined with a malignant heart, are like a piece of broken earthenware from the furnace, which glitters with the silver drops at stick to it, but is itself worthless....

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...

BURNING LIPS, AND A WICKED HEART,.... Either burning with wrath and malice; breathing out threatenings and slaughter; pursuing men with reproaches and slanders, arising from a wicked heart: or rather, burning with profession of love to God, and affection to good men; with great pretensions of kindness, and promises of good things, when their hearts are wicked, and they design noticing less; say one thing with their lips, with the greatest show of affection and sincerity, and mean another in their hearts. These [ARE LIKE] A POTSHERD COVERED WITH SILVER DROSS: which at a distance, or to less discerning persons, looks like silver, and is taken for it; when the covering is only dross, and what is within is only a potsherd, Or a piece of an earthen vessel, good for nothing: such are the specious professions and deceitful words, which flow from a wicked heart....

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....

BURNING LIPS: i.e. warm professions. SILVER DROSS. Figure of speech _Hypallage_ (App-6). Hebrew. silver of dross....

_burning_ Better, FERVENT, R.V., with protestations of affection. _a potsherd covered_ The rendering, AN EARTHEN VESSEL OVERLAID, R.V. makes the meaning clearer....

BURNING LIPS, AND A WICKED HEART— _Splendid lips, with a wicked heart._ Houbigant. The LXX read, _Smooth lips, disguising a wicked heart._...