Scripture Daily

Context No. 470 of 4322 · Proverbs

Context · Reflection

Proverbs 26:17-28: in context

17Like one who grabs a dog’s ears is one who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own. 18Like a madman who shoots torches, arrows, and death, 19is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “Am I not joking?” 20For lack of wood a fire goes out. Without gossip, a quarrel dies down. 21As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindling strife. 22The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, they go down into the innermost parts. 23Like silver dross on an earthen vessel are the lips of a fervent one with an evil heart. 24A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but he harbors evil in his heart. 25When his speech is charming, don’t believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. 26His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. 27Whoever digs a pit shall fall into it. Whoever rolls a stone, it will come back on him. 28A lying tongue hates those it hurts; and a flattering mouth works ruin.

This stretch of Proverbs is a gallery of destructive talkers, and it is full of vivid images. Meddling in someone else's quarrel is like grabbing a stray dog by the ears; you will get bitten. The person who deceives his neighbor and then laughs it off, saying, wasn't I only joking?, is like a madman flinging firebrands and arrows. Smooth words over a malicious heart are like a cheap glaze over a clay pot, all shine and no substance. But at the center of the passage is one image about strife that is worth pulling out, because it locates the fuel of most conflicts exactly.

For lack of wood the fire goes out, the proverb says, and where there is no gossip, a quarrel dies down. Think about what that means. A fire needs fuel; take away the wood and it burns itself out. And a quarrel, the proverb insists, works the same way. Conflicts do not usually keep burning on their own. They keep burning because people keep feeding them with talk, the repeating, the passing along, the rehearsing of who said what and who did what to whom. Gossip is the wood. Stop adding it, and the fire, left to itself, goes out. The passage even describes how the fuel gets in: the words of a whisperer are like choice morsels, it says, they go down into the innermost parts. Gossip is delicious to receive and it lodges deep, which is exactly why it keeps conflicts alive long after they should have died.

That reframes gossip from harmless information-sharing into what it actually is: fuel for a fire that would otherwise go out. And it puts a real choice in front of me every time I am tempted to repeat something. In any quarrel I am near, I am either adding wood or letting the fire die. Where have I kept a conflict burning, in my family, my workplace, my community, by continuing to talk about it, to pass it along, to rehearse the grievance, when the strife would have quietly died down if I had simply stopped feeding it?

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