3A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.
Linguistic Insight
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Cross-References
From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.
Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.
What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?
I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare:
Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.
Commentary
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Bible (1710)
(vv. 3)Here, 1. Wicked men are compared to the horse and the ass , so brutish are they, so unreasonable, so unruly, and not to be governed but by force or fear, so low has sin sunk men, so much below themselves. Man indeed is born like the wild ass’s colt , but as some by the grace of God are changed, and become rational, so others by custom in sin are hardened, and become more and more sottish, as the h…
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