Proverbs 27:14 - Exposition

He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning. What is meant is ostentatious salutation, which puts itself forward in order to stand well with a patron, and to be beforehand with other servile competitors for favour. Juvenal satirized such parasitical effusion ('Sat.' 5.19)—

" Habet Trebius, propter quod rumpere somnum

Debeat et ligulas dimittere, sollicitus, ne

Tots salutaris jam turba peregerit orbem,

Sideribus dubiis, aut illo tempore, quo se

Frigida circumagunt pigri surraca Bootae ."

The "loud voice" intimates the importunate nature of such public trumpeting of gratitude, as the "rising early" denotes its inopportune and tactless insistency, which cannot wait for a convenient opportunity for its due expression. It shall be counted a curse to him. The receiver of this sordid adulation, and indeed all the bystanders, would just as soon be cursed by the parasite as blessed in this offensive manner, This clamorous outpouring of gratitude is not accepted as a return by the benefactor; he sees the mean motives by which it is dictated self-interest, hope of future benefits—and he holds it as cheap as he would the curses of such a person. The nuisance of such flattery is mentioned by Euripides, 'Orest.,' 1161—

παύσομαί σ αἰνῶν ἐπει _

βάρος τι κὰν τῷ δ ἐστὶν αἰνεῖσθαι λίαν .

" Duo sunt genera prosecutorum ," says St. Augustine ('In Psalm.,' 69), " sciliet vituperantium et adulantium; sed plus prosequitur lingua adulatoris, quam manus prosecutoris ." "Woe unto you," said Christ ( Luke 6:26 ), "when all men shall speak well of you." "Do I seek to please men?" asked St. Paul ( Galatians 1:10 ); "for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."