As a thorn goes up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
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Bede
AD 735
Now the boards [of the tabernacle] were made out of acacia wood, that is, a thorny sort [of wood], and according to the Savior’s pronouncement thorns are the cares of this world, its pleasures, riches and false delights. But the pricks of sins may also not incongruously be compared with thorns, for it is written here that thorns grow in the hands of a drunkard, that is, sins in the works of a fool. Because the holy preachers are eager both to expurgate themselves from the pricks of vices and to strip away all the cares and delights of the world so that with a free mind they might be able to be expanded in the love of God and neighbor and to run far and wide to preach the word, it is therefore rightly said that the boards of the tabernacle were made out of acacia wood (that is, out of thorny [wood]), for they were indeed made of thorns, but thorns from which all the thorny barbs had been completely stripped away, so that they shone with a pure whiteness.
If. Hebrew, "as a thorn goeth up into the "(Protestants) (Haydock)
If he attempt to handle or to extract one, he will wound himself the more, as the fool would render truth and wisdom contemptible. (Calmet)
Parable. Septuagint, "but slavery in the hands of fools "groweth up. (Haydock)
