Reading: Proverbs 24:24-34

I recall the pleasure at realizing I have given a right answer to a question or comment. Alas, sometimes that pleasure has been outright pride. 🙁 (And sometimes amazed incredulity.)

I also recall the dismay at having given the wrong (or inappropriate) answer. Unfortunately, sometimes there’s been pride when there should have been dismay. (And sometimes there’s been that amazed and stunned incredulity.)

Whatever the case, we treasure right answers — especially when we give them.

But this?

“Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer” (26).

My Western mind doesn’t understand. (Yes, I looked up the verse in my Spanish Bible…and the wording is essentially the same.) I don’t want every man (or even every woman) kissing my lips.

But I still want to have lips that give right answers.

So what does the verse mean and what is its cultural/historical context?

from Proverbs 24:28

A little bit more from Proverbs 24: Don’t Pay Back in Kind