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The interpretation timeline

Prov 26:17

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Prov 26:17 · Douay-Rheims
“As he that taketh a dog by the ears, so is he that passeth by in anger, and meddleth with another man’s quarrel.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
735
A.D.
Bede Patristic
A.D. 673–735
“As he who takes a dog by the ears, etc. The Apostle says, Do not strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers (II Tim. II). Therefore, whoever is simple-minded, and if the ear of one of the two who are quarreling is captured by his biting word, he quickly begins to bark like a dog and generate contentions; but the wise man avoids this altogether.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.