Matthew Henry on Proverbs 15:18
Here is, 1. Passion the great make-bate. Thence come wars and fightings. Anger strikes the fire which sets cities and churches into a flame: A wrathful man, with his peevish passionate reflections, stirs up strife, and sets people together by the ears; he gives occasion to others to quarrel, and takes the occasion that others give, though ever so trifling. When men carry their resentments too far, one quarrel still produces another. 2. Meekness the great peace-maker: He that is slow to anger not only prevents strife, that it be not kindled, but appeases it if it be already kindled, brings water to the flame, unites those again that have fallen out, and by gentle methods brings them to mutual…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 15:18
(Compare Pro 14:29; Pro 16:32).
John Gill on Proverbs 15:18
A wrathful man stirreth up strife,.... A man of a wrathful disposition, of a furious spirit, of an angry temper; that is under the power and dominion of such a passion, and indulges it, and takes all opportunities to gratify it; he stirs up strife and contention where there was none, or where it was laid; as a man stirs up coals of fire and raises a flame; see Proverbs 26:21. He stirs up strife in families, sets one relation against another, and the house in an uproar; he stirs up contentions in neighbourhoods, and sets one friend and neighbour against another, whence proceed quarrels and lawsuits: he stirs up strife in churches, breaks brotherly love, and causes animosities and divisions; h…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 15:18
Two proverbs of two different classes of men, each second line of which terminates with a catchword having a similar sound (וארך, וארח).
18 A passionate man stirreth up strife,
And one who is slow to anger allayeth contention.
Pro 28:25 and Pro 29:22 are variations of the first line of this proverb. The Pih. גּרה occurs only these three times in the phrase גּרה מדון, R. גר, to grind, thus to strike, to irritate, cogn. to (but of a different root from) the verb עורר, to excite, Pro 10:12, and חרחר, to set on fire, Pro 26:21, cf. שׁלּח, Pro 6:14. Regarding חמה, vid., Pro 15:1; we call such a man a "hot-head;" but the biblical conception nowhere (except in the Book of Daniel) places the head in…
