Proverbs 17:14

The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with. THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE (IS AS) WHEN ONE LETTETH OUT WATER - as when, in a dam or mound raised to oppose a flood or the sea, there is ever so small an aperture, the water passing through is sure to make it larger and larger, until with one mighty volume of water the whole embankment is swept away. THEREFORE LEAVE OFF CONTENTION, BEFORE IT BE MEDDLED WITH - leave off, instead of eagerly discussing most minute offences, and devising means of retaliation, with a pertinacious determination to conquer. 'It is easier to abstain from a contest than to withdraw from it' (Seneca). Oppose beginnings. 'The mother of mischief is no bigger than a midge's wing.' Strife is compared to the two most merciless elements, fire and water....

Verse Proverbs 17:14. _THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE_ IS AS _WHEN ONE LETTETH OUT_ _WATER_] As soon as the smallest breach is made in the dike or dam, the water begins to _press_ from all parts _towards the breach_; the resistance becomes too great to be successfully opposed, so that dikes and all are speedily swept away. Such is the beginning of contentions, quarrels, lawsuits, c. _LEAVE OFF CONTENTION, BEFORE IT BE MEDDLED WITH._] As you see what an altercation must lead to, therefore do not begin it. Before it be _mingled together_, התגלע hithgalla, before the spirits of the contending parties come into conflict - are joined together in battle, and begin to deal out mutual reflections and reproaches. When you see that the dispute is likely to take this turn, leave it off immediately....

The figure is taken from the great tank or reservoir upon which Eastern cities often depended for their supply of water. The beginning of strife is compared to the first crack in the mound of such a reservoir. At first a few drops ooze out, but after a time the whole mass of waters pour themselves forth with fury, and it is hard to set limits to the destruction which they cause. BEFORE IT BE MEDDLED WITH - literally, “before it rolls, or rushes forward.”...

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 17:1 (Comp, Proverbs 15:16, Proverbs 15:17; Proverbs 16:8.) BETTER (sweeter) IS A DRY MORSEL, AND QUIETNESS THEREWITH. Dry bread was soaked in wine or water before it was eaten. Thus Boaz bid Ruth "dip her morsel in the vinegar" (Ruth 2:14); thus Jesus gave the sop to Judas when he had dipped it (John 13:26). The Septuagint is pleonastic, "Better is a morsel with joy in peace." Ab

THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE [IS AS] WHEN ONE LETTETH OUT WATER,.... As when a man makes a little hole in the bank of a river, or cuts a small passage in it, to let the water into an adjoining field; by the force of the water, the passage is widened, and it flows in, in great abundance, to the overflow and prejudice of the field; nor is it easily stopped: so a single word, spoken in anger, with some warmth, or in a way of contradiction, has been the beginning and occasion of great strife and contention. The words in the Hebrew text lie thus; "he that letteth out water [is] the beginning of strife" o; which some understand of letting out water into another man's field, which occasions contentions, quarrels, and lawsuits; but the former sense is best: the Targum is, "he that sheddeth blood as water stirreth up strifes;'' THEREFORE LEAVE OFF CONTENTION, BEFORE IT BE MEDDLED WITH; cease from it...

CHAPTER 17 DIVERSE PROVERBS Of the twenty-eight proverbs found in this chapter we point out but a few. “The fining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold; but the LORD trieth the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3). Man may try silver and gold, but God only the hearts. And He tries the hearts by the refining process, trials and afflictions, the process which rests in His own hands. (See Psalms 66:10; Malachi 3:3; 1 Peter 1:7 .) “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” (Proverbs 17:9). To

PROVERBS 17. Fresh points are the rise of the able and clever slave to a place in the family (Proverbs 17:2), the practice of bribes (Proverbs 17:8; Proverbs 17:23), the value of adversity as a test of friendship (Proverbs 17:17): also the subject of suretyship, dealt with in Proverbs 6:1, is resumed (Proverbs 17:18). PROVERBS 17:1. For the connexion betwee

BEGINNING OF STRIFE. Illustrations: Ephraimites (Judges 12:1); Abner (2 Samuel 2:14); Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 10:1); Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:17); the Twelve (Matthew 20:24). WHEN ONE LETTETH OUT. the letting loose (as by making. breach in. dam). BE MEDDLED WITH. gathereth volume....

_letteth out water_ by making ever so small a hole or fissure in a dam, or in the bank of a reservoir, such as Solomon himself constructed (Ecclesiastes 2:6). "aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis Exiit, oppositasque evicit gurgite moles, Fertur in arva furens cumulo, camposque per omnes Cum stabulis armenta trahit." Virg. _Aen_. ii. 496 499. _be meddled with_ The Heb. word occurs only here and in Proverbs 18:1; Proverbs 20:3, in which places the rendering of A.V. is: _be meddled with, intermeddleth with, will be meddling_. We must, however, render, THERE BE QUARRELLING, R.V. or, IT WAXETH WARM, Gesen....

THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE, &C.— Those who begin a quarrel are like those who make a breach in a bank, and give an opening to the waters of a rapid river; which they can never be sure to stop before it produces the most fatal and calamitous events. This painting admirably represents the effects of lying and false reports, and supplies us with an excellent lesson to avoid the contagion, and prevent the beginnings of contention. See Calmet and Poole....