Proverbs 19:19

A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) For if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.—As St. Paul says (Galatians 6:5), “Every man shall bear his own burden.” We cannot shield wrong-headed people from the consequences of their want of self-control, however much we may pity them for the suffering they have brought on themselves.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 19:19. A man of great wrath — Or, he who is of great wrath, that is, of strong passions; who is of a fierce and furious temper; shall suffer punishment — Will certainly bring great mischiefs upon himself; for if thou deliver him — If any parent, relation, or friend deliver him out of one trouble, through his ungovernable temper he will soon involve himself in another; and thou must do it again — Thou wilt soon find it necessary to interpose for his deliverance a second, third, or even fourth time: all which trouble to themselves and others would be prevented if such men would look unto God for grace to enable them to mortify their passions, and to get the rule of their own spirits.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:19. The spared and spoiled child is likely to become a man of great wrath. 20. Those that would be wise in their latter end, must be taught and ruled when young. 21. What should we desire, but that all our purposes may agree with God's holy will? 22. It is far better to have a heart to do good, and want ability for it, than to have ability for it, and want a heart to it. 23. Those that live in the fear of God, shall get safety, satisfaction, and true and complete happiness. 24. Indolence, when indulged, so grows upon people, that they have no heart to do the most needful things for themselves. 25. A gentle rebuke goes farthest with a man of understanding. 26. The young man who wastes his father's substance, or makes his aged mother destitute, is hateful, and will come to disgrace.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A man of great wrath; or, he who is of great wrath, of strong passions; which may be understood either,

1. More particularly, of a son of such a temper, who is very impatient of correction, and breaks forth into violent passions upon that occasion; and then the following words contain the parent’s duty, which is to take care to punish him, because if he spare him that thee for his passion, he must do so again and again, the same cause returning upon him, and so must wholly forbear to chasten him. Or,

2. More generally, of any man of a fierce and furious temper and carriage; and then the next words declare only the event, by his great and repeated provocations he will bring punishment upon himself, either from God or men.

If thou deliver him; if either a parent, or another person provoked by him, forbear to punish him. He turneth his speech to the party, as is usual in Scripture and in other authors.

Thou must do it again, Heb. thou must add, to wit, to deliver him again and again, as oft as he shall offend; or, thou wilt add or increase, to wit, his wrath, which thou shouldst subdue.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. do it again] Because, if you deliver him by paying for him or otherwise ridding him of the “penalty” which his passionate action has brought upon him, his unbridled temper is sure to bring him into trouble again, and so you had better let things take their course.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - Some connect this verse with the preceding, as though it signified, "If you are too severe in chastising your son, you will suffer for it." But there is no connecting particle in the Hebrew, and the statement seems to be of a general nature. A man of great wrath; literally, rough in anger; Vulgate, impatiens; Septuagint, κακόφρων ἀνήρ. Such a one shall suffer punishment; shall bear the penalty which his want of self-control brings upon him. For if thou deliver him, yet must thou do it again. You cannot save him from the consequences of his intemperance; you may do so once and again, but while his disposition is unchanged, all your efforts will be useless, and the help which you have given him will only make him think that he may continue to indulge his anger with impunity, or, it may be, he will vent his impatience on his deliverer.

Βλάπτει τὸν ἄνδρα θυμὸς εἰς ὀργὴν πεσών Anger, says an adage, "is like a ruin, which breaks itself upon what it falls." Septuagint, "If he destroy (ἐὰν δὲ λοιμεύηται), he shall add even his life;" if by his anger he inflict loss or damage on his neighbour, he shall pay for it in his own person; Vulgate, Et cum rapuerit, aliud apponet. Another interpretation of the passage, but not so suitable, is this: "If thou seek to save the sufferer (e.g. by soothing the angry man), thou wilt only the more excite him (the wrathful): therefore do not intermeddle in quarrels of other persons." Proverbs 19:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 equals 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 Heb. 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 equals 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).