Bible Strands
Proverbs 26:7
Like lame legs hanging limp is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The book of Proverbs addresses a learner, placing the fool’s speech within a sequence of practical warnings about unwise actions.
The words — `שֹׁ֭קַיִם` (Sho.ka.yim) = legs and `פִּסֵּ֑חַ` (pi.Se.ach) = lame. The literal phrasing describes legs that hang limp from a person who cannot walk.
The thread — The comparison of a fool’s speech to a failed physical instrument continues in Proverbs 26:6 and Proverbs 26:9, while Psalm 64:8 and Proverbs 17:7 track the same theme of the tongue’s self-defeating or unfit function.
Why it lands — The text states that a proverb in a fool’s mouth is as functionless as a lame person’s dangling legs, requiring a reader to dismiss unwise counsel as structurally useless.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The legs of the lame are not equal: so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 26:9 Like a thorn that goes into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
- Psalms 64:8 They will be made to stumble, their own tongues turned against them. All who see will shake their heads.
- Proverbs 17:7 Eloquent words are unfit for a fool; how much worse are lying lips to a ruler!
- Psalms 50:16 To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips?
- Matthew 7:4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye?
- Luke 4:23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in Your hometown what we have heard that You did in Capernaum.’”