Proverbs - 19:19



19 A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty, for if you rescue him, you must do it again.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Proverbs 19:19.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.
A man of great wrath shall bear the penalty; For if thou deliver him , thou must do it yet again.
He that is impatient, shall suffer damage: and when he shall take away he shall add another thing.
A man of great wrath is bearing punishment, For, if thou dost deliver, yet again thou dost add.
A man of great wrath will have to take his punishment: for if you get him out of trouble you will have to do it again.
A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment; For if thou interpose, thou wilt add thereto.
Whoever is impatient will sustain damage. And when it has been taken away, he will set up another.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

The sense of the last words seems to be that the connection between wrath and punishment is so invariable, that all efforts to save the passionate man from the disastrous consequences which he brings on his own head are made in vain.

A man of great wrath - He who is of an irritable, fiery disposition, will necessarily get himself into many broils; and he that is surety for him once is likely to be called on again and again for the same friendly office.

A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou (f) deliver [him], yet thou must do it again.
(f) Though for a time he gives place to counsel, yet soon after will he give place to his raging affections.

A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment,.... Either a child that is of a wrathful disposition, and provokes his parent to wrath; or a parent that chastises his child in wrath; each shall suffer for it; or any man that gives way to wrath and anger and is continually quarrelling, he involves himself in trouble; and is punished, as his offence requires, according to law, either in his person or estate;
for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again; if he is got out of one broil, he will get into another quickly; if he clear of one lawsuit, another will be commenced against him in a short time; if he is discharged and freed from a penalty he is justly subject to, it must be done again and again; he will fall into the same evil, and there is no end of appearing, for him and serving him; a wrathful man brings himself into great trouble, as may be seen in Shimei, 2-Samuel 16:7, 1-Kings 2:46.

The spared and spoiled child is likely to become a man of great wrath.

Repeated efforts of kindness are lost on ill-natured persons.

Another proverb with נשׂא:
A man of excessive wrath must suffer punishment;
For if thou layest hold of it, hindering it, thou makest it only worse.
The lxx, Syr., and Targ. translate as if the words were גּבר חמה (as בּעל חמה, Proverbs 29:22). Theodotion, the Venet., and Luther render the Kerı̂ גּדל־; Jerome's impatiens is colourless. The Chethı̂b גרל gives no appropriate meaning. The Arab. jaril means lapidosus (whence גּורל, cf. Aram. פּסּא = ψῆφος), and Schultens translates accordingly aspere scruposus iracundiae, which is altogether after the manner of his own heavy style. Ewald translates גּרל as derived from the Arab jazyl, largus, grandis; but the possibility of the passing over of ר into ז, as maintained by Ewald and also by Hitzig, or the reverse, is physiologically undemonstrable, and is confirmed by no example worthy of mention. Rather it may be possible that the Hebrews. had an adj. גּרל or גּרל in the sense of stony, gravel-like, hard as gravel, but tow rather than gravel would be appropriate to חמה. Hitzig corrects גּמל חמה, "who acts in anger;" but he says שׁלּם חמה, to recompense anger, Isaiah 59:18; גמל חמה is without support. This correction, however, is incomparably more feasible than Bttcher's, "moderate inheritance bears expiation;" חמה = חמאה must mean not only thick [curdled] milk, but also moderation, and Bttcher finds this "sound." From all these instances one sees that גרל is an error in transcription; the Kerı̂ גּדל־חמה rightly improves it, a man is thus designated whose peculiarity it is to fall into a high degree of passionate anger (חמה גדולה, Daniel 11:44): such an one has to bear ענשׁ, a fine, i.e., to compensate, for he has to pay compensation or smart-money for the injury suffered, as e.g., he who in strife with another pushes against a woman with child, so that injury befalls her, Exodus 21:22. If we compare this passage with 2-Samuel 14:6, there appears for תּצּיל the meaning of taking away of the object (whether a person or a thing) against which the passionate hothead directs himself. Therewith the meaning of ועוד תּוסף accords. The meaning is not that, הצּיל, once is not enough, but much rather must be repeated, and yet is without effect; but that one only increases and heightens the חמה thereby. It is in vain to seek to spare such a violent person the punishment into which he obstinately runs; much more advisable is it to let him rage till he ceases; violent opposition only makes the evil the greater. With כּי אם, "denn wenn" [for then], cf. Proverbs 2:3, "ja wenn" [yea if], and with ועוד in the conclusion, Job 14:7 (a parallelism syntactically more appropriate than Psalm 139:18).

Great wrath - Of strong passions. Deliver - If thou forbear to punish him. Do it - Thou must deliver him again and again.

*More commentary available at chapter level.


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