Proverbs 26:6 - Exposition

He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool. This clause comes in the Hebrew after the next. Cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage. To entrust an important commission to a fool is to deprive one's self of the means of having it properly executed, and to bring upon one's self shame and injury. A man who is so silly as to employ such an unfit messenger, as it were, cuts off the feet which should bear him on his errand, and, instead of enjoying the satisfaction of seeing the business well performed, he will be mortified and damaged by the blunder and stupidity of his emissary. Septuagint, "He maketh for himself reproach from his own ways ( ὁδῶν ,? ποδῶν ) who sendeth a word by a foulish messenger." The Vulgate reads the first participle in a passive sense, claudus pedibus; but this is uneccessary. We have similar phrases to "drinketh damage" elsewhere; e . g . Job 15:16 "drinketh in iniquity;" Job 34:7 , "drinketh up scorn;" and with a different word, Proverbs 19:28 , "devoureth iniquity."