Religious Humor: Proverbs 26:17

"He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears."  Proverbs 26:17

The Proverbs are part of the Hebrew Wisdom Literature.  The point made here is good advice presented in a humorous way which makes the wisdom point easier to remember.   The humor comes from the exaggerated, almost slapstick image, of a man who has grabbed a dog's ears in anger and then realizes he has more trouble than he started with.  Very Mr. Bean. The image is enhanced when you realize that dogs in most of the ancient Middle East were not domesticated.  They ran in wild packs scavenging for food.

This is not referring to intervening in obviously deadly or dangerous situations such as a rape or an assault.  It also is not counseling one to intentionally not see an illegal or unethical situation.  The image is one of an argument or a legal dispute into which one has not been "invited."

We all know people who have to "fix" every situation and who hop right in, sometimes forcefully.  They think that if everyone would just be "reasonable" it could all be solved and they are sure they know the reasonable solution.  When they inevitably are accused of taking sides in the argument they may end up angering everyone involved, including themselves.  The Hebrew words translated as "meddleth" (meddling, interfering, etc) are "mit abber" " מִתְעַבֵּר" meaning to "become furious."  If you don't know what is going on, don't just foolishly run in and make it worse.