What Does Proverbs 26:6 Mean?
Whoever sends a word by the hand of a thick-headed one cuts off the feet, and drinks violence.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage.THE KEY
Releasing a message through a fool turns the sender into the first victim: his footing is cut away, and violence becomes his drink.
THE MEANING
This verse names the cost of entrusting a message to a fool: the sender’s own footing is severed, and the sender drinks the violence that follows. The act of sending becomes a path of self-injury.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that once a message leaves your hands, its outcome belongs only to the receiver. Here, the sender’s own footing and well-being are bound to whom he entrusts it.
THE ROOT
שֹׁלֵחַ
shōlēaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send forth, release, or let go.
The Hebrew word for “sendeth” grows from שלח (shalach), “send forth” or “release.” The handoff is itself an act of release: what leaves your hand extends your reach, yet here that release cripples the sender.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away; release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch makes the handoff a letting-go, clarifying why the sender remains implicated in what the message does.
Shiloach: Sent waters; the name of the pool of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The same root can describe a sending that restores sight, while this verse shows a release that carries harm.
חָמָס
ḥāmās
GROWS FROM
חמס
To act violently; violence or violent wrong.
The word rendered “damage” is חָמָס (ḥāmās), “violence” or “violent wrong.” Its root gives the drinker something more severe than a vague loss: the sender takes violence into himself as the result of this delegation.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmās: Violence; violent wrong.
חָמָס
This is the verse’s word for what the sender drinks, naming the consequence as violence rather than mere inconvenience.
ḥāmas: To act violently or treat violently.
חָמַס
The verbal branch shows violence as an action, linking the damage to what the entrusted message sets in motion.
THE PATTERN
A message entrusted to another becomes life-giving or destructive through the way its carrier handles it.
Like the cold of snow in the day of harvest, so is a steady messenger to those who send him, for he brings back the living soul of his masters.As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the slack one to those who send him.And how will they herald unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!THE THREAD
Like the cold of snow in the day of harvest, so is a steady messenger to those who send him, for he brings back the living soul of his masters.The word “send” comes from שלח (shalach), “send forth” or “release,” in both verses. Here, the release becomes harm through a fool; there, a faithful messenger refreshes the senders.
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