Proverbs 27:3-4

27:3 A stone is heavy and sand is weighty,

but vexation ¹  by a fool is more burdensome ²  than the two of them.

27:4 Wrath is cruel and anger is overwhelming, ³ 

but who can stand before jealousy? ⁴ 

Daniel 3:13

3:13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in a fit of rage ⁵  demanded that they bring ⁶  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego before him. So they brought them ⁷  before the king.

Daniel 3:19-20

3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed ⁸  toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders ⁹  to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated. 3:20 He ordered strong ¹⁰  soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire.

[27:3]  ¹ tn The subject matter is the vexation produced by a fool. The term כַּעַס (ca’as) means “vexation” (ASV); provocation” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); “anger” (KJV “wrath”) and usually refers to undeserved treatment. Cf. NLT “the resentment caused by a fool.”

[27:3]  ² sn The contrast is made between dealing with the vexation of a fool and physical labor (moving stones and sand). More tiring is the vexation of a fool, for the mental and emotional effort it takes to deal with it is more draining than physical labor. It is, in the sense of this passage, almost unbearable.

[27:4]  ³ tn Heb “fierceness of wrath and outpouring [= flood] of anger.” A number of English versions use “flood” here (e.g., NASB, NCV, NLT).

[27:4]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “jealousy” here probably has the negative sense of “envy” rather than the positive sense of “zeal.” It is a raging emotion (like “anger” and “wrath,” this word has nuances of heat, intensity) that defies reason at times and can be destructive like a consuming fire (e.g., 6:32-35; Song 8:6-7). The rhetorical question is intended to affirm that no one can survive a jealous rage. (Whether one is the subject who is jealous or the object of the jealousy of someone else is not so clear.)

[3:13]  ⁵ tn Aram “in anger and wrath”; NASB “in rage and anger.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[3:13]  ⁶ tn The Aramaic infinitive is active.

[3:13]  ⁷ tn Aram “these men.” The pronoun is used in the translation to avoid undue repetition.

[3:19]  ⁸ tn Aram “the appearance of his face was altered”; cf. NLT “his face became distorted with rage”; NAB “[his] face became livid with utter rage.”

[3:19]  ⁹ tn Aram “he answered and said.”

[3:20]  ¹⁰ tn This is sometimes taken as a comparative: “[some of the] strongest.”