Proverbs 26:27

Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

Ver. 27. Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall thereinto.] This is the same with Psalms 7:15, from which it seems to be taken; See Trapp on " Psa 7:15 " Heathen writers have many proverbs to like purpose. See Erasm. Chiliad.

And he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.] Cardinal Benno relates a memorable story of Pope Hildebrand, or Gregory VII, that he hired a base fellow to lay a great stone upon a beam in the church where Henry IV, the emperor, used to pray, and so to lay it that it might fall as from the top of the church upon the emperor's head, and kill him. But while this wretch was attempting to do it, the stone, with its weight, drew him down, and falling upon him, dashed him in pieces upon the pavement. The Thracians in Herodotus, being offended with Jupiter for raining unseasonably upon them, shot up their arrows at him, which soon after returned upon their own heads.