Proverbs chapter 25

vs 20

Wow, I completely misread this verse the first time. Anyway, the miserable person who sings joyful songs to a miserable person. Yes, we all know what that's like. Glad I re-read it. I'll keep this little gem stored up for the next person who tries to go all chemo on me.

vs 21

You might remember this proverb from the NT. Romans, I think. Interesting that God's wisdom doesn't change so much as we might think. This is as countercultural back then as it is now.

vs 22

And I've always loved this half of the proverb. I mean, this shouldn't be our reason for doing it, but it's an effect of being nice to an enemy - they feel bad about being bad to us. Paul conveniently left out the bit about God rewarding us though. Which is a nice little topper, if I do say so myself.

vs 23

Ooh, a hyphen! They're really taking risks now, using all sorts of punctuation.

I would have thought rain would be good. But I guess rain can come at good times and at bad times, even in the Middle East. In the same way, a sly tongue can be unexpected and surprising, and damaging I suppose.

vs 24

Don't go there. Just nod and back away.

Seriously though... nagging is awful. And living with a nagging or quarrelsome spouse (aha!) can be an endless frustration.

vs 25

What gets me is why this is from a distant land? Isn't good news good, regardless of distance? Wouldn't good news be better if it was local? Perhaps not, because of the lag of news from faraway places. If you care what's happening, hearing nothing for a while is almost like bad news. So when you hear the good news, it refreshes you.

vs 26

Wow. You hear that, righteous? Don't give way to the wicked, or you become polluted or muddied, unclear, less useful. But we have to be firm without going nuts about it. We can't just kill them, for example. We have to deal with them righteously.

vs 27

I assume the two are linked. Perhaps this is a verse akin to that one in Ecclesiastes about much study wearying the body. So honey is good, but eating too much of it will make you sick. Investigating, learning and questioning are good, but it can become bad if you do too much of it. How much is too much? I think it's like honey - too much is when you make yourself sick doing it. This is a hard sell, especially to the "For Science!" people.

vs 28

In other words, they are easily taken over by things. It's like impulse buying - there's nothing wrong with buying something you need, or even want really, but buying it because it's waved under your nose, awful. I fall for it, lack of self control.