A Fool Loves to Quarrel

A fool is always looking for an argument.

July 26, 2019

"A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.  A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul."

Proverbs 18:6-7

“A fool’s lips enter into contention,”
The fool’s mouth gets him into trouble because he lets his mouth cause strife.  If the fool thinks it, he believes he must say it.  And so comes the quarrel, the debate, the argument.

“A fool’s lips enter into contention,…  That is, between others, when he has nothing to do with it; but he must be meddling, and make himself a party in the contention, which is an argument of his folly; he says things which occasion disputes, raise contentions among men, and provoke to wrath and anger”1 (Gill).

A fool is a troublemaker, and his chief tool is his mouth.

“And his mouth calleth for strokes.”
His incendiary comments push folks to the point of physical altercation.  At least they would like to give him some “wall to wall counseling.”2

“A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back” (Proverbs 26:3).

The word “strokes” is the same Hebrew word for “stripes” in,

“Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools” (Proverbs 19:29).

“A fool’s mouth is his destruction,”
It’s not hard to understand why the fool is always in trouble with those he meets.  It’s his mouth, which he has no control over.  What empties out of it comes directly from his heart.  His evil words are from his evil heart.

“A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matthew 12:35).

“And his lips are the snare of his soul.”
The “snare” is a trap, easy to get into, and challenging to get out of.  The Hebrew word means “bait, lure, snare.”3  The bait that snares the fool is the opportunity to stir up an argument.  It will catch him every time.

“Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth” (Proverbs 6:2).

“The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips: but the just shall come out of trouble” (Proverbs 12:13).

“Oh, be careful little mouth what you say,
Oh, be careful little mouth what you say,
For the Father up above is looking down in love,
Oh, be careful little mouth what you say!”
–Unknown

 

 

 

1.  John Gill. John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible, the electronic version in eSword.
2.  A military euphemism that means to “pound the daylights out of him.”
3.  Brown, Driver, Briggs.  Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions, the electronic version in eSword.