At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come (KJV).
Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight (ESV).
Proverbs 26:2
This proverb is the scriptural equivalent of “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Now like all proverbs, there are times when it is not strictly speaking true. Words can hurt, and the book of Proverbs contains numerous instances where it describes that. The tongue is a restless evil, and like a small spark can result in a forest burning down, so also a loose word can set fire to the course of nature (Jas. 3:6). That can happen.
Nevertheless the proverb is a true proverb, and this means that it is generally true. People who curse without cause are cursing in a way that cannot land. And because their curses cannot really land, we ought not to worry about what they say—any more than we are concerned about what the sparrow flitting back and forth above our heads might be thinking.
This does not mean that such words are not sinful. Where words are many, sin is not absent (Prov. 10:19). But in such an instance as this, the damage that is being done is being done to the speaker, and not really to the object of his ire.
We live in an era of social media, and it has to be confessed that there is a great deal of verbal scribbling out there, and almost as much verbal squabbling. But most of it is being hurled into the void, and so we ought not to be distracted by it. Internet snark, for the most part, should be filed where the sparrow flits and the swallow flies.
When a joke or a meme catches traction, like Jeffrey Epstein not killing himself, and it goes viral, this is generally because the hook is not baseless. There is something to it; there is a there there. Otherwise we shouldn’t worry too much about it.
