Proverbs 17:14 The beginning of strife is as when one lets out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with. The history of the French port of St. Valery, where William I embarked for the conquest of England in 1066, may well illustrate the truth that the beginning of strife is as the letting out of water. The success of the Norman enterprise did not prevent but occasioned the return of the tide of war after an interval of two centuries. Then during the Hundred Years War it was first burnt by the English, and then by Charles the Bad of Navarre. After that it was destroyed by Louis XI to keep it out of our hands, and in later years it was sacked by Leaguers, Royalists, and Spaniards, so that the historian of Abbeville says that "history has failed to keep count of its disasters." (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with. |
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