Proverbs 16:26 - Exposition

He that laboureth laboureth for himself; literally, the soul of him that laboureth laboureth for him. "Soul" here is equivalent to "desire," "appetite" (comp. Proverbs 6:30 ), and the maxim signifies that hunger is a strong incentive to work—the needs of the body spur the labourer to diligence and assiduity; he eats bread in the sweat of his brow ( Genesis 3:19 ). Says the Latin gnome—

" Largitor artium, ingeniique magister Venter ."

"The belly is the teacher of all arts,

The parent of invention."

" De tout s'avise a qui pain faut ,"

"He who wants bread thinks of everything."

There is our own homely saw, "Need makes the old wife trot;" as the Italians say, "Hunger sets the dog a-hunting" (Kelly). For his mouth craveth it of him; his mouth must have food to put in it. The verb אָכַף ( akaph ) does not occur elsewhere; it means properly "to bend," and then to put a load on, to constrain to press. So here, "His mouth bends over him, i.e. urgeth him thereto" (Revised Version). Ecclesiastes 6:7 , "All labour of man is for his mouth;" we should say stomach. Hunger in some sense is the great stimulus of all work. "We commanded you," says St. Paul ( 2 Thessalonians 3:10 ), "that if any would not work, neither should he eat." There is a spiritual hunger without which grace cannot be sought or obtained—that hungering and thirsting after righteousness of which Christ speaks, and which he who is the Bread of life is ready to satisfy ( Matthew 5:6 ; John 6:58 ). The Septuagint expands the maxim: "A man in labours labours for himself, and drives away ( ἐκβιάζεται ) his own destruction; but the perverse man upon his own mouth carrieth destruction."