Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 17:14
The beginning of strife [is as] when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.
14. 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 (Ecc 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 Pro 18:1, Pro 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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 17:14
The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.
Strife and contention
Here contention seems to differ from strife, the former being more general, the latter more particular. Strife is by implication wholly forbidden, as being most mischievous; contention is regulated and ordered to be left off, in due time, before it be meddled with. Contending by reason and argument is frequently a duty recommended and practised by the best of men. But so soon as the contending parties refuse to hear reason, and proceed with heat and passion, then arises strife. Then every method made use of to carry a cause tends to widen the breach and inflame the adversaries. If the matter of the strife should only be unseasonable it may nevertheless prove mischievous and fatal by drawing men off from attending to things of the greatest importance to the public welfare, and by souring their temper, make union and concord impracticable. For the manner alone in which strife is usually carried on renders it impossible to be kept in due bounds. Even the end itself, for which the strife was at first begun, is neglected or forgotten. The parties engaged go on from skirmishes to battles, from the provoking of wrath to the drawing of blood. Would you avoid strife, and the mischiefs which naturally follow from it? Then leave off contention in due season: before it be meddled with, i.e., before the contention be too much diffused or blended with passion; or the parties proceed to open rupture and hostilities; or other persons mix themselves in the quarrel. Compare It is an honour for a man to cease from strife; but every fool will be meddling. The advice is so excellent and so necessary that one cannot but wish means might be found to put it in practice. When men of birth, education, and fortune are governed in all questions by the dictates of reason and divest themselves of all prejudice and passion, they soon reduce all their differences to an inconsiderable quantity, and settle in such a manner as candour and equity can approve. Let every one, then, in his sphere and station, endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: to quench every spark of discord or strife. To bring this happy work to effect there is but one certain and never-failing method, which is this, to regulate our whole conduct by the Word of God, from whence we are instructed to practise every duty recommended by right, reason, and the best policy. (John Newcombe, D. D.)
The beginning of strife
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.)
Strife
Crabb makes a difference between discord and strife. He says, Discord evinces itself in various ways–by looks, words, or actions; strife displays itself in words, or acts of violence. Discord is fatal to the happiness of families; strife is the greatest enemy to peace between neighbours; discord arose between the goddesses on the apple being thrown into one assembly. Homer commences his poem with the strife that took place between Agamemnon and Achilles. The passages suggests three ideas concerning strife.
I. It is an evil of terrific progress. This strife spreads. One angry word leads to another, one act of resentment, will kindle a fire that may set a whole neighbourhood or a nation into conflagration. A drop of strife soon becomes a river, and the river a torrent.
II. It is an evil that should be checked. Therefore leave off contention. Every lover of his race and his God should suppress it. It is a desolating thing, it makes sad havoc in families, neighbourhoods, churches, nations.
1. Be inspired with the spirit of peace.
2. Maintain the character of peace.
3. Use the argument of peace. Thus he will check the spirit of strife.
III. It is an evil which can be easily checked at the beginning. You may mend the embankment with tolerable ease at the stage when it emits only a few oozing drops. The mightiest and most furious beasts of prey you can easily destroy at their birth; the most majestic and resistless river you can stop at its spring head. So it is with strife, in its incipient state you may easily crush it. Crush the upas in the germ, tread out the conflagration in the spark. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 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, 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Letteth out water, by cutting the bank of a river, in which case the water quickly widens the breach, and breaks in with irresistible violence and fury, and causeth great mischief and destruction.
Leave off contention, before it be meddled with; avoid the occasions and prevent the beginnings of contention.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. letteth . . . wateras abreach in a dam.
before . . . meddledwithbefore strife has become sharp, or, by an explanationbetter suiting the figure, before it rolls on, or increases.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 as soon as begun; leave it off before it is well entered: or “before one mixes himself” p with it, or is implicated with it; got so far into it, that it will be difficult to get out of it: or “before thou strivest with any openly”; which sense the word has in the Arabic language, as Schultens q observes; that is, before you come to open words and blows, put an end to the contention; do not suffer it to proceed so far; since it cannot be known what will be the consequence of it: or rather, leave it off, as the same learned writer in his later thoughts, in his commentary on the place, by the help of Arabism, also renders it, “before the teeth are made bare”: or shown, in quarrelling, brawling, reproaching, in wrath and anger.
o “qui aperit aquam, vel aperiens aquas (est) principium contentionis”, Pagninus, Montanus. p “antequam sese immisceat”, Junius & Tremellius. q Animadv. p. 931.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
14 As one letteth out water is the beginning of a strife;
But cease thou from such strife ere it comes to showing teeth.
The meaning of this verb is certain: it means to break forth; and transitively, like Arab. fatr , to bring forth from a cleft, to make to break forth, to let go free (Theodotion, ; Jerome, dimittit ; Venet. ). The lxx, since it translates by , thinks on the juristic signification, which occurs in the Chronicles: to make free, or to declare so; but here ( vid., regarding the Metheg at Pro 14:31) is, as Luther translates, one who tears away the dam from the waters. And is not accus. dependent on , to be supplied (Hitzig: he unfetters water who the beginning of strife, viz., unfetters); but the part. is used as at Pro 10:17: one who unfetters the water is the beginning of strife, i.e., he is thus related to it as when one… This is an addition to the free use of the part. in the language of the Mishna, where one would expect the infin., e.g., (= ), if one sows, (= ), of wantonness. It is thus unnecessary, with Ewald, to interpret as neut., which lets water go = a water-outbreak; is meant personally; it represents one who breaks through a water-dam, withdraws the restraint of the water, opens a sluice, and then emblematically the proverb says: thus conditioned is the beginning of a strife. Then follows the warning to let go such strife ( , with the article used in the more elevated style, not without emphasis), to break from it, to separate it from oneself ere it reach a dangerous height. This is expressed by , a verb occurring only here and at Pro 18:1; Pro 20:3, always in the Hithpa. The Targum (misunderstood by Gesenius after Buxtorf; vid., to the contrary, Levy, under the word II) translates it at Pro 18:1; Pro 20:3, as the Syr., by “to mock,” also Aquila, who has at Pro 20:3, , and the lxx at Pro 18:1, , and Jerome, who has this in all the three passages, render the Hithpa. in this sense, passively. In this passage before us, the Targ., as Hitzig gives it, translates, “before it heats itself,” but that is an error occasioned by Buxtorf; vid., on the contrary, Levy, under the word ( ); this translation, however, has a representative in Haja Gaon, who appeals for , to glow, to Nidda viii. 2.
(Note: Vid., Simon Nascher’s Der Gaon Haja u. seine giest. Thtig. p. 15.)
Elsewhere the lxx, at Pro 20:3, (where Jerome, with the amalgamation of the two significations, miscentur contumeliis ); Kimchi and others gloss it by , and, according to this, the Venet. translates, ( ); Luther, “before thou art mingled therein.” But all these explanations of the word: insultare, excandescere , and commisceri , are etymologically inadmissible. Bertheau’s and Zckler’s “roll itself forth” is connected at least with a meaning rightly belonging to the R. . But the Arab. shows, that not the meaning volvere , but that of retegere is to be adopted. Aruch
(Note: Vid., p. 109, note.)
for Nidda viii. 2 refers to the Arab., where a wound is designated as , i.e., as breaking up, as it were, when the crust of that which is nearly healed is broken off (Maimuni glosses the word by , were uncrusted), and blood again comes forth. The meaning retegere requires here, however, another distinction. The explanation mentioned there by Aruch: before the strife becomes public to thee, i.e., approaches thee, is not sufficient. The verbal stem is the stronger power of , and means laying bare; but here, not as there, in the Mishna of a wound covered with a crust. The Arab. jal’ means to quarrel with another, properly to show him the teeth, the Pol or the tendency-stem from jali’a , to have the mouth standing open, so that one shows his teeth; and the Syr. glas , with its offshoots and derivatives, has also this meaning of ringi , opening the mouth to show, i.e., to make bare the teeth. Schultens has established this explanation of the words, and Gesenius further establishes it in the Thesaurus, according to which Fleischer also remarks, “ , of showing the teeth, the exposing of the teeth by the wide opening of the mouth, as happens in bitter quarrels.” But does not agree with this. Hitzig’s translation, “before the strife shows its teeth,” is as modern as in Pro 17:11 is the passion of the unfettered demon, and Fleischer’s prius vero quam exacerbetur rixa renders the Hithpa. in a sense unnecessarily generalized for Pro 18:1 and Pro 20:3. The accentuation, which separates from by Rebia Mugrash, is correct. One may translate, as Schultens, antequam dentes stringantur , or, since the Hithpa. has sometimes a reciprocal signification, e.g., Gen 42:1; Psa 41:8: ere one reciprocally shows his teeth, Hitzig unjustly takes exception to the inversion . Why should not the object precede, as at Hos 12:1-14:15, the , placed with emphasis at the end? The same inversion for a like reason occurs at Ecc 5:6.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
14 The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.
Here is, 1. The danger that there is in the beginning of strife. One hot word, one peevish reflection, one angry demand, one spiteful contradiction, begets another, and that a third, and so on, till it proves like the cutting of a dam; when the water has got a little passage it does itself widen the breach, bears down all before it, and there is then no stopping it, no reducing it. 2. A good caution inferred thence, to take heed of the first spark of contention and to put it out as soon as ever it appears. Dread the breaking of the ice, for, if once broken, it will break further; therefore leave it off, not only when you see the worst of it, for then it may be too late, but when you see the first of it. Obsta principiis–Resist its earliest display. Leave it off even before it be meddled with; leave it off, if it were possible, before you begin.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Destructive Contention
Verse 14 illustrates the beginning and eventual consequences of contentions and disputes with the rupture and eventual break of a dam. Such begin with a tiny leak, but if not stopped, grow until there is a destructive break that affects many. The counsel of this proverb is to mend the problem before it gets out of control, Pro 20:3; Pro 25:8; Gen 13:7-9; Luk 12:58.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 17:14. Meddled with, rather pours forth.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 17:14
THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE
I. This moral pestilence is of great antiquity. It began with the angels who kept not their first estate (Jud. 1:6), and from that far-distant period until now the universe has never been free from discordgood and evil have striven against each other, and strife has also reigned between those who are on the side of evil. There was strife between the first two human brothers born into this world, and since the day when Cain slew Abel because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous, this terrible enemy of human happiness has been slaying his victims wherever men were to be found.
II. Strife is a thing of growth. There is a moment when the fire which will presently destroy a town is only a tiny spark which the breath of a child could extinguish,the leak which at last sinks the vessel and sends a hundred brave men to a watery grave was once no larger than a pin-holeand the breach in the dam through which a torrent of water rushes, leaving desolation behind it, begins with an opening through which not more than a few drops of water can force their way. So it is with strife. It does not attain to its full dimensions in a moment. The hatred in the heart which is the root of strife may be at first but a passing feeling, but if it is not overcome at its first appearance it grows in strength from day to day. And its outward manifestation in strife may begin with but a few angry wordsan apparently trifling disagreement. But those who have indulged in it will presently find themselves in the grip of a giantovermastered, and carried headlong by passion to crimes of which they once thought it impossible they could ever be guilty.
III. If the miserable effects of strife are to be avoided, it must be attacked in its beginnings. Seeing how disastrous are the effects of the leak in the ship, and how much desolation is caused by the ravages of fire or the bursting forth of pent-up water through its banks, it behoves all who are in any way responsible in these matters to be watchful for the first indications of mischief, and to put a stop to it before it gets beyond their power. And if a man would avoid being a party to a quarrel, he must watch narrowly the first risings of anger in his heart and take care that he never utters the first angry word. If the first remains unspoken, a second can never pass his lips; but if in an unguarded moment the angry feeling finds an outlet in angry speech, the speaker himself cannot tell where and how the mischief will end. It may go from words of strife to deeds of strife, and both will entail more misery upon their author than upon him who is the subject of them. The self-interest of every man ought to prompt him to check the beginnings of strife in himself and in others; it is so great an enemy to our social well-being that we are all as much interested in putting a stop to its ravages as we are in arresting the progress of a pestilential disease. But the children of God are specially called to this work. They are bound to be imitators of their Father in this matter, and He is the God of peace (Rom. 15:33). All the plans and purposes of God have for their aim peace on earth (Luk. 2:14), and His children ought to emulate His example. And they cannot do otherwise. They have been made partakers of the Divine nature (2Pe. 1:4), and the nature of God is eminently peace-loving. If, therefore, a man has been born of God he must delight in social peace and harmonyhe must recoil from strife and discord. It is peacemakers who shall be called the children of God (Mat. 5:9), and He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now (1Jn. 2:9).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Man is a sociable-living creature, and should converse with man in love and tranquillity. Man should be a supporter of man; is he become an over-thrower? O apostasy, not only from religion, but also from humanity! The greatest danger that befalls man comes from where it should least come, from man himself. Lions fight not with lions; serpents spend not their venom on serpents; but man is the main suborner of mischief to his own kind. God hath hewn us all out of one rock, tempered all our bodies of one clay, and spirited our souls of one breath. Therefore, saith Augustine, since we proceed all out of one stock, let us all be of one mind. Beasts molest not their own kind, and birds of a feather fly lovingly together. Not only the blessed angels of heaven agree in mutual harmony, but even the very devils of hell are not divided, lest they ruin their kingdom. We have one greater reason of love and unity observed than all the rest. For whereas God made not all angels of one angel, nor all beasts of the great behemoth, nor all fishes of the huge leviathan, nor all birds of the majestical eagle, yet he made all men of one man.T. Adams.
We are but several streams issuing from one primitive source; one blood flows in all our veins; one nourishment repairs our decayed bodies; we are co-habitants of the same earth, and fellow-citizens of the same great commonwealth; and he that hates another detests his own most lively picture; he that harms another injures his own nature. The heavenly angels, when they agree most highly to bless and to wish the greatest happiness to mankind, could not better express their sense than by saying, Be on earth peace, and goodwill among men.Barrow.
It is easier to abstain from a contest than to withdraw from it.Seneca.
Both the destructive elementsfire and waterillustrate the danger of the beginning of strife (chap. Pro. 26:21). To neither element can we say, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further! (Job. 38:11). Seldom when we have heard the first word, do we hear the last. An inundation of evil is poured in. The bank is much more easily preserved than repaired. For, as one strongly observed, Man knows the beginning of sin, but who bounds the issues thereof?Bridges.
Quietness is like a pleasant pond full of sweet fish sporting themselves up and down in it, and multiplying continually to a great increase; so in a quiet life mens affairs do prosper, and their estate is increased to plenty and abundance, so that they bathe themselves in the comfort of it. But let the sluice be taken up, the fishes are quickly gone, the waters stay not until they be gone also, and nothing but mud and mire is left; and even so let the gap of contention be opened, all comforts flee away, and usually the estates sink lower and lower until it be dried up to beggary and misery. Make up, then, all breaches as soon as they appear, or rather keep all sound by watchfulness, so that no breach may appear. And let not the serpent get in his head, for, because the scales of his body stand the other way, it is not easy to get it out again; because the mind of thine adversary is made averse from thee, it is not easy to end a strife begun.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(14) The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water.The drops which ooze through a tiny hole in the bank of a reservoir soon swell into an unmanageable torrent; so from insignificant beginnings arise feuds which cannot be appeased. Solomon constructed large pools (Ecc. 2:6) beyond Bethlehem, and is supposed to have brought the water from these by an aqueduct into Jerusalem.
Before it be meddled with.The same expression is used at Pro. 18:1; Pro. 20:3. It probably means before (men) show their teeth, a metaphor from an angry dog.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Strife Discord, contention.
As when one letteth out Better, as a breaking forth of, water. There may, at first, be but a small leak, but, unrepressed, it will widen and spread until it become difficult to control.
Leave off Do not begin it; avoid it.
Before it be meddled with The critics are by no means agreed about the exact sense of , ( hithgalla’h,) rendered “meddled with.” Many give it the sense of pouring or rushing forth, or rolling onward. The metaphor of water confined in dams or reservoirs (so common in the East) breaking forth, at first by a small aperture, which, by the action and force of the water, still widens and deepens, is very striking and instructive. In such a case a little effort at first would arrest it, but, after it has attained full headway, it becomes uncontrollable, and, like a deluge, spreads desolation around. The general sentiment of the proverb is this: The less we have to do with contention the better, and, when it is begun, the sooner we can arrest it or desist from it, the better. See Heb 12:18.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 14. The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 17:14. 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.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 17:14 The beginning of strife [is as] when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.
Ver. 14. The beginning of strife is as when one lets out water. ] It is easier to stir strife than stint it. Lis litem generat; as water, it is of a spreading nature. Do therefore here as the Dutchmen do by their banks; they keep them with little cost and trouble, because they look narrowly to them, and make them up in time. If there be but the least breach, they stop it presently, otherwise the sea would soon flood them.
“Fertur in arva furens cumulo, camposque per omnes
Cum stabulis armenta trahit.” – Virgil, Aeneid.
The same may fitly be set forth also by a similitude from fire; which if quenched presently, little hurt is done; as if not, “Behold how great a wood a little fire kindleth,” saith Saint James. Pro 3:5 If “fire break out but of a bramble, it will devour the cedars of Lebanon.” Jdg 9:15 Cover therefore the fire of contention, as William the Conqueror commanded the curfew bell.
Therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
beginning of strife. Illustrations: Ephraimites (Jdg 12:1-6); Abner (2Sa 2:14-17); Rehoboam (2Ch 10:1-16); Jeroboam (2Ch 13:17); the Twelve (Mat 20:24).
when one letteth out = the letting loose (as by making a breach in a dam).
be meddled with = gathereth volume.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 17:14
Pro 17:14
“The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; Therefore leave off contention before there is quarreling.”
Toy noted that the, “Language here is somewhat indefinite”; whatever the precise meaning, the passage is a warning against strife. “The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. “If you start an argument, it is like breaking a hole in a dam; so stop the argument before it becomes bigger and bigger.
Pro 17:14. Clarke: 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 the dikes and all are speedily swept away. Such is the beginning of contentions, quarrels, lawsuits, etc. Pulpit Commentary also interprets the statement as when one letteth out water. It is possible, though, that the expression referred to is the plain type of talk that they used in those days, talk that our society does not look upon as acceptable. Regardless of the figure and its interpretation, its application is unquestioned: cut off strife before it gets started.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
beginning: Pro 17:19, Pro 26:21, Pro 29:22, Jdg 12:1-6, 2Sa 2:14-17, 2Sa 19:41-43, 2Sa 20:1-22, 2Ch 10:14-16, 2Ch 13:17, 2Ch 25:17-24, 2Ch 28:6
leave: Pro 13:10, Pro 14:29, Pro 15:1, Pro 16:32, Pro 19:11, Pro 20:3, Pro 25:8, Gen 13:8, Gen 13:9, Jdg 8:1-3, Ecc 7:8, Ecc 7:9, Mat 5:39-41, Act 6:1-5, Act 15:2-21, Rom 12:18, 1Th 4:11, 2Ti 2:23, 2Ti 2:24, Jam 3:14-18
Reciprocal: Jdg 12:6 – there fell 2Sa 2:26 – it will be 2Sa 2:27 – unless 2Sa 19:43 – the words 2Sa 20:2 – every man 1Ki 12:14 – My father made 2Ki 14:8 – Come 2Ki 14:10 – why shouldest Pro 3:30 – General Pro 18:1 – intermeddleth Pro 18:6 – fool’s Pro 26:4 – General Pro 30:33 – so Hos 5:10 – remove Act 12:20 – but 1Co 13:4 – vaunteth not itself Col 3:8 – anger Heb 12:14 – Follow Jam 1:19 – slow to wrath
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 17:14. 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 contentions: see Calmet.