Proverbs 10:26 (ESV) … “Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.”
The humor of this proverb well compares the irritation of an unreliable person with that of vinegar in the mouth and smoke in the eyes. Whereas the smoke and vinegar are irritable to the physical person, the sluggard is irritable to the emotion of the individual and to the fabric of society. The double simile in a structure of three cola gives greater force to the proverb.[1]
Slothful and unprofitable servants, to whom talents are given for usefulness, which they hide or use not, are very provoking to Christ, and whom he will order into outer darkness; those who have gifts for sacred service ought, not to be slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, Matt. 25:26, 29; Rom. 12:6–11.[2]
[1] Garrett, D. A. (1993). Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of songs (Vol. 14, pp. 121–122). Broadman & Holman Publishers. [2] Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 4, p. 400). Mathews and Leigh.
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