Proverbs 12:16

12:16 A fool’s annoyance ¹  is known at once, ² 

but the prudent ³  overlooks ⁴  an insult.

Proverbs 14:29

14:29 The one who is slow to anger has great understanding,

but the one who has a quick temper ⁵  exalts ⁶  folly.

Proverbs 15:18

15:18 A quick-tempered person ⁷  stirs up dissension,

but one who is slow to anger ⁸  calms ⁹  a quarrel. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 16:32

16:32 Better to be slow to anger ¹¹  than to be a mighty warrior,

and one who controls his temper ¹²  is better than ¹³  one who captures a city. ¹⁴ 

Proverbs 17:14

17:14 Starting a quarrel ¹⁵  is like letting out water; ¹⁶ 

stop it before strife breaks out! ¹⁷ 

Colossians 3:12-13

Exhortation to Unity and Love

3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, ¹⁸  kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 3:13 bearing with one another and forgiving ¹⁹  one another, if someone happens to have ²⁰  a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others. ²¹ 

James 1:19

Living Out the Message

1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! ²²  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

[12:16]  ¹ tn Heb “The fool, at once his vexation is known.” This rhetorically emphatic construction uses an independent nominative absolute, which is then followed by the formal subject with a suffix. The construction focuses attention on “the fool,” then states what is to be said about him.

[12:16]  ² tn Heb “on the day” or “the same day.”

[12:16]  ³ tn Heb “shrewd.”

[12:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “covers.” The verb כָּסָה (casah) means “covers” in the sense of ignores or bides his time. The point is not that he does not respond at all, but that he is shrewd enough to handle the criticism or insult in the best way – not instinctively and irrationally.

[14:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “hasty of spirit” (so KJV, ASV); NRSV, NLT “a hasty temper.” One who has a quick temper or a short fuse will be evident to everyone, due to his rash actions.

[14:29]  ⁶ sn The participle “exalts” (מֵרִים, merim) means that this person brings folly to a full measure, lifts it up, brings it to the full notice of everybody.

[15:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “a man of wrath”; KJV, ASV “a wrathful man.” The term “wrath” functions as an attributive genitive: “an angry person.” He is contrasted with the “slow of anger,” so he is a “quick-tempered person” (cf. NLT “a hothead”).

[15:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “slow of anger.” The noun “anger” functions as a genitive of specification: slow in reference to anger, that is, slow to get angry, patient.

[15:18]  ⁹ tn The Hiphil verb יַשְׁקִיט (yashqit) means “to cause quietness; to pacify; to allay” the strife or quarrel (cf. NAB “allays discord”). This type of person goes out of his way to keep things calm and minimize contention; his opposite thrives on disagreement and dispute.

[15:18]  ¹⁰ sn The fact that רִיב (riv) is used for “quarrel; strife” strongly implies that the setting is the courtroom or other legal setting (the gates of the city). The hot-headed person is eager to turn every disagreement into a legal case.

[16:32]  ¹¹ tn One who is “slow to anger” is a patient person (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT). This is explained further in the parallel line by the description of “one who rules his spirit” (וּמֹשֵׁל בְּרוּחוֹ, umoshel bÿrukho), meaning “controls his temper.” This means the person has the emotions under control and will not “fly off the handle” quickly.

[16:32]  ¹² tn Heb “who rules his spirit” (so NASB).

[16:32]  ¹³ tn The phrase “is better than” does not appear in this line in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the parallelism.

[16:32]  ¹⁴ sn The saying would have had greater impact when military prowess was held in high regard. It is harder, and therefore better, to control one’s passions than to do some great exploit on the battlefield.

[17:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the beginning of a quarrel”; TEV, CEV “The start of an argument.”

[17:14]  ¹⁶ tn The verse simply begins with “letting out water.” This phrase is a metaphor, but most English versions have made it a simile (supplying “like” or “as”). R. N. Whybray takes it literally and makes it the subject of the clause: “stealing water starts a quarrel” (Proverbs [CBC], 100). However, the verb more likely means “to let out, set free” and not “to steal,” for which there are clearer words.

[17:14]  ¹⁷ tn The temporal clause is formed with the prepositional “before,” the infinitive construct, and the following subjective genitive. The verb גָּלַע (gala’) means “to expose; to lay bare,” and in the Hitpael “to disclose oneself; to break out.”

[3:12]  ¹⁸ tn If the genitive construct σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ (splancna oiktirmou) is a hendiadys then it would be “compassion” or “tenderheartedness.” See M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 161.

[3:13]  ¹⁹ tn For the translation of χαριζόμενοι (carizomenoi) as “forgiving,” see BDAG 1078 s.v. χαρίζομαι 3. The two participles “bearing” (ἀνεχόμενοι, anecomenoi) and “forgiving” (χαριζόμενοι) express the means by which the action of the finite verb “clothe yourselves” is to be carried out.

[3:13]  ²⁰ tn Grk “if someone has”; the term “happens,” though not in the Greek text, is inserted to bring out the force of the third class condition.

[3:13]  ²¹ tn The expression “forgive others” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. It is included in the translation to make the sentence complete and more comprehensible to the English reader.

[1:19]  ²² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.