Originally Posted By: BranShea
Yes, it's a methaphor obviously, but it certainly is not 'good intentions'. It is a refined way to humiliate your enemy.
Yes , killing with kindness maybe.


Even if it is a way to humiliate your enemy (and I don't think it is in the sense of a deliberate desire to inflict psychological harm), that would still be better than the prevailing ancient custom of lopping off his head! The obvious alternatives are let your enemy starve and die of thirst - surely not a better option? And the humiliation in the context of the general ethos of the book of Proverbs would be designed to elicit a change of heart in them - as another Proverb says "sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways."