Proverbs 26:3

3. Whip… bridle… rod “According to our English notions, we should rather say a bridle for the horse and a whip for the ass. But from numerous passages in the Old Testament it appears that asses were the beasts on which the people, and even the great men, usually rode. Their asses, therefore, being active and well broken, needed but a bridle to guide them, whereas their horses, being, probably, badly broken and easily frightened, would be less manageable, and frequently require the correction of the whip.” The Seventy, perhaps led by the same train of thought as the above, have translated מתג , ( metheg,) bridle, by κεντρον , a goad. There is, however, no example of such use of metheg. Instead of “for the back of a fool,” they also read, “for a simple nation.” Comp. Proverbs 10:13; Proverbs 19:29; Psalms 32:9.