Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 18:19
A brother offended [is harder to be won] than a strong city: and [their] contentions [are] like the bars of a castle.
19. offended ] or injured, R.V. marg.
like the bars of a castle ] forming an impassable barrier to reconciliation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The meaning of the first clause is obtained in the King James Version by the insertion of the words in italics, and it seems on the whole to be the best. The Septuagint and Vulgate give an entirely different rendering, based, apparently, upon a different text.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 18:19
A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city.
Physical power and moral power
In the early life of men and communities, the power most admired is physical power. Those who can conquer in the material world are the heroes of the young. Later, men think more of intellectual achievements. The greatest in the schools is the greatest in the world. In the maturest stage of life we are content with less conspicuous feats; for we see that the less may be greater. We deem it greater to conquer in the realm of moral life than in the field of nature or the area of intellect. The conqueror in the field of battle may be great, but the conqueror of the hearts of men is greater. A brother offended may be harder to win than the bars of a castle, but so much the nobler is the victory. To win men is a nobler achievement than the defeat of mens bodies or the confounding of their minds. (Bp. Boyd Carpenter.)
Discords among brethren
No discords are like those of brethren; the nearer the union, the greater the separation upon a breach; for natural ties being stronger than artificial, when they are once broken, they are hardly made up again, as seams when they are ripped may be sown again; but rents in the whole cloth are not so easily remedied. (H. G. Salter.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city] Almost all the versions agree in the following reading: “A brother assisted by a brother, is like a fortified city; and their decisions are like the bars of a city.” Coverdale is both plain and terse: “The unitie of brethren is stronger then a castell, and they that holde together are like the barre of a palace.” The fable of the dying father, his sons, and the bundle of faggots, illustrates this proverb. Unity among brethren makes them invincible; small things grow great by concord. If we take the words according to the common version, we see them express what, alas! we know to be too generally true: that when brothers fall out, it is with extreme difficulty that they can be reconciled. And fraternal enmities are generally strong and inveterate.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Offended, to wit, by his brothers unkindness or injury.
Is harder to be won; or, is stronger, which is sufficiently understood by the mention of a strong city, to which he is compared; such ellipses being frequent in the Hebrew, as hath been noted before.
Than a strong city; which is hardly to be conquered.
Like the bars of a castle; which are very strong, and not to be broken, and make the castle strong, and hardly to be won. The truth of this assertion is confirmed by the testimony of Aristotle and other learned authors, who affirm the same fixing; and the reason of it is evident, because the nearness of the relation greatly heightens the provocation, and love abused frequently turns to extreme hatred.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. No feuds so difficult ofadjustment as those of relatives; hence great care should be used toavoid them.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A brother offended [is harder to be won] than a strong city,…. A fortified city may sooner be taken by an enemy, than one brother offended can be reconciled to another; their resentments against each other are keener than against another person that has offended them; and their love being turned into hatred, it is more bitter; and it is more difficult to compose differences between brethren than between enemies; wherefore such should take care that they fall not out by the way: this is true of brethren in a natural sense; as the cases of Abel and Cain, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brethren, Amnon and Absalom, and others, show; and of brethren in a spiritual sense, as Paul and Barnabas, Luther and Calvin, and others;
and [their] contentions [are] like the bars of a castle: which cannot be easily broken or cut asunder: so contentions, especially those among brethren, are with great difficulty made to cease, and their differences composed; they will stand it out against one another as long as a strong city, or a barred castle, against an enemy.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
19 A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.
Note, 1. Great care must be taken to prevent quarrels among relations, and those that are under special obligation to each other, not only because they are most unnatural and unbecoming, but because between such things are commonly taken most unkindly, and resentments are apt to be carried too far. Wisdom and grace would indeed make it most easy to us to forgive our relations and friends if they offend us, but corruption makes it most difficult to forgive them; let us therefore take heed of disobliging a brother, or one that has been as a brother; ingratitude is very provoking. 2. Great pains must be taken to compromise matters in variance between relations, with all speed, because it is a work of so much difficulty, and consequently the more honourable if it be done. Esau was a brother offended, and seemed harder to be won than a strong city, yet by a work of God upon his heart, in answer to Jacob’s prayer, he was won.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Offended Brothers
Verse 19 declarer, that the unseen obstacles which separate an offended brother are more difficult to overcome than a city protected by strong barriers; and contentions are as the barred entrances to a castle or fortress. Care in avoiding and dealing with offenses is directed in the Scriptures, Pro 13:10; Pro 15:18; Pro 26:21; Pro 29:22; Pro 20:3; Pro 25:8; Mat 18:7-22; Eph 4:26-27; Eph 4:31-32.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 18:19. Is harder to be won; these words are not in the original, but have been inserted to supply the sense. Some translators read a brother offended resisteth more than a strong city. Miller reads, When a brother is revolted away, it is from a city of strength.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 18:19
CASTLE BARS
The state of things treated in this verse reveals most conclusively that man has fallen. Contention between any men is a plain proof that there is some flaw in human nature, that the relations of human creatures are not what they ought to be. If the disputants are men of the same nation, their contention seems more unnatural than if they belonged to different races, but when sons of the same fathermen brought up at the knees of the same mother, are found in a state of enmity, we have a very strong proof that the race is not what its head was when he came fresh from the hand of his Creator. Such enmity Solomon compares to the bars of a castle
I. Because it is hard to break through. The bars that guard the outlet of a fortress are strong, and when the iron crowbar is applied to them with a view of making an entrance, the weapon finds itself resisted by a substance as unyielding as its own. The bars strike against each other, but neither being more brittle than its antagonist, no progress is made. It is no ordinary difference that makes a ground of quarrel between brothers; there are so many ties to be broken and so many motives of self-interest to bind them, that the enmity must be deep to separate them at first, and being deep and strong, it is not easily broken down.
II. Because it is the only thing that separates them. Friends who dearly love each other and are one in spirit sometimes find nothing between them but a few barsthe iron grating of a dungeon may be all that keeps them apart. But although it is only that, it is a very real and terrible barrier. And a dispute between brethren is like iron bars, dividing those who ought to be one more truly and sadly than any prison door could separate them. They may be dwelling under the same roof, and so have every opportunity of enjoying each others society and gladdening each others life. But contention builds around each one a more impregnable barrier than the highest walls of the strongest fortress.
III. That to subdue such enmity requires more wisdom and skill than to take a city. There are several methods by which a city may be won. It may be taken by superior physical force, it may be surprised and captured, or its inhabitants may be starved into a surrender. But it is not so easy to capture a human heartan angry brother must be subdued by different means, and by weapons which require more skilful handling. No physical force can break down enmity of hearteven God cannot reconcile men unto Himself by His physical omnipotence, but wins them by love. And this is the only power which can win a brother offended. If he has been in the wrong we must approach him with a free forgiveness, and if the wrong has been on our side we must approach with submission and acknowledgment of our fault.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
When a brother is revolted away, it is from a city of strength; and contentions are like the bars of a citadel. The whole meaning is, that one brother revolted away from another, is revolted from a city of strength, that being what one is to all the rest. In other words, brothers are a shelter to brothers, and quarrels lock up that resort. Notice, that a brother is not only a commoner defence, but a citadel; and a bar to that keep shuts a man out of his best earthly dependence. It is a fine adage, even for this world but when applied to our Great Brother, and to our God and King, it is one of the noblest of inspired texts. He who offends our Brother Prince shuts a high tower (Psa. 18:2). He who quarrels with our Surety snaps to the lock of a citadel; and then, alas, it shall be, just as the wild rush of embittered enemies should have roused him to enter in.Miller.
The sweeter the wine the sharper the vinegar; accordingly, the greater the love implanted by nature, the more bitter the hate where this love is violated.Zeltner.
The matter of fact is here statedand there are natural enough reasons to account for it. More is justly expected from a brother than from a strangermore of affection, gratitude, kindly treatment, fidelity, and trustworthiness. When such expectations are disappointed, the wound in the spirit is proportionately deeper, and more difficult of healingthe breach wider, and harder of being made up. Besides, the slower a person is to take offencethe longer he forbearsthe more he forgivesthe more difficult it is fairly to overcome the yearnings of affection, and break the bonds of brotherhoodthe more inveterate may the spirit of resentment be; the more sullen and distant the alienation, when it is actually produced.Wardlaw.
Whether it be a brother by race, place, or grace; those oft that loved most dearly, if once the devil cast his club between them, hate most deadly. As for brethren by profession, and that of the true religion too, among Protestants, you shall meet with many divisions, and those prosecuted with a great deal of bitterness. No war breaks out sooner, or lasts longer, than that among divines, or that about a sacrament; a sacrament of love, a communion, and yet the occasion, by accident, of much dissension.Trapp.
The original word here used is a brother revolting or departing by disloyalty; or else a brother offended by disloyal departing. For such ought to be the command of love between brethren, that he that breaks it is a disloyal rebel unto it. And surely they had need to be firmly tied, because, being divided, they are so hardly joined. For as that which being whole is most strongly united, being broken is farthest from being made whole; and as a stick of hard wax, being broken, may more easily be conjoined than a stick of hard wood, so are the divisions of brethren more hardly composed than the contentions of others.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(19) A brother offended.Or rather, wronged.
Their contentions.Of such as have once been friends, are like the bars of a castle, or palace, forming an almost impassable barrier to reconciliation. The bitterness of quarrels between friends is proverbial.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. A brother offended Estranged, because of some real or supposed wrong done him.
Harder than a strong city Some versions and critics give a different reading of this proverb, thus: “A brother assisted by a brother is like a fortified city, and their decisions like the bars of a castle.”
Coverdale thus: “The unity of brethren is stronger than a castle, and they that hold together are like the bars of a palace.” These readings are not in accordance with the present Hebrew text, but are supported by the Septuagint, Vulgate, etc.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 19. A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 18:19. A brother offended As a fortified city is a brother assisted by a brother; and they who mutually love one another, are like the bars of a castle. Houb. following the Vulgate. The author of the Observations, remarking that these bars were frequently of brass or iron, says, “According to this, there may be something more in the emphasis of the following passage than has been remarked. Their contentions are like the bars of a castle; not merely hard to be removed, on account of their size, but on account of the materials of which they were made; as not being of wood, but of iron or brass.” See 1Ki 4:13. Isa 45:2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 18:19 A brother offended [is harder to be won] than a strong city: and [their] contentions [are] like the bars of a castle.
Ver. 19. A brother offended is harder to be won, &c. ] Whether it be a brother by race, place, or grace; Corruptio optimi pessima: those oft that loved most dearly, if once the devil cast his club between them, they hate most deadly. See this exemplified in Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, Polynices and Eteocles, Romulus and Remus, Caracalla and Geta, the two sons of Severus the Emperor, Robert and Rufus, the sons of William the Conqueror, the civil dissensions between the houses of York and Lancaster, wherein were slain eighty princes of the blood royal, a the dissensions between England and Scotland, which consumed more Christian blood, wrought more spoil and destruction, and continued longer than ever quarrel we read of did between any two people of the world. As for brethren by profession, and that of the true religion too, among Protestants, you shall meet with many divisions, and those prosecuted with a great deal of bitterness. Nullum bellum citius exardescit, nullum deflagrat tardius quam Theologicum. b No war breaks out sooner, or lasts longer, than that among divines, or as that about the sacrament; a sacrament of love, a communion, and yet the occasion, by accident, of much dissension. This made holy Strigelius weary of his life. Cupio ex hac vita migrare ob duas causas, saith he. For two causes chiefly do I desire to depart out of this world; First, That I may enjoy the sweet sight of the Son of God, and the Church above; Next, Ut liberer ab immanibus et implicabilibus odiis Theologorum, that I may be delivered from the cruel and implacable hatreds of dissenting divines. c There is a most sad story of those that fled to Frankfort hence in Queen Mary’s time; yet among them there were such grievous breaches, that they sought the lives one of another; great care therefore must be taken that brethren break not friendship: or if they do, that they reunite in peace again as soon as is possible.
a Dan, 192.
b Bucholcer.
c Melch. Adam, in Vita.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
offended = dealt falsely with.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 18:19
Pro 18:19
“A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city; And such contentions are like the bars of a castle.”
The meaning here is uncertain. The underlined words are not in the Hebrew but were added by the translators. “A brother helped by a brother is like a fortified city; he holds firm as the bars of a castle. “Help your brother, and he will protect you like a strong city wall; but, if you quarrel with him, he will close his doors to you. In the three versions cited here there is no complete agreement.
Pro 18:19. When love is lost, bitterness sets in, and the bitterness is as strong and as intense as the love had previously been. Pulpit Commentary: Bitter are the quarrels of friends; and, Those who love beyond measure also hate beyond measure. Clarke: When brothers fall out, it is with extreme difficulty that they can be reconciled. The verse shows an offended brother is hard to be won, but it does not say it is impossible. Paul and Barnabas had a serious break (Act 15:36-40), but there is evidence that such was not permanent. Paul refused to take Mark (Act 15:37-38), which no doubt was an offence to Mark, but later Paul wrote, Take Mark, and bring him with thee; for he is useful to me for ministering (2Ti 4:11). Jacob and Esau had a notable falling out (Gen 27:41-45), but later there was a reconciliation (Gen 33:8-12). This verse gives a strong reason for being careful of what we say and do that may needlessly offend others. Jas 1:19 says, Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
brother: Pro 6:19, Gen 4:5-8, Gen 27:41-45, Gen 32:6-11, Gen 37:3-5, Gen 37:11, Gen 37:18-27, 2Sa 13:22, 2Sa 13:28, 1Ki 2:23-25, 1Ki 12:16, 2Ch 13:17, Act 15:39
than: Pro 16:32
Reciprocal: Gen 32:11 – Deliver Jdg 12:6 – there fell Jdg 20:48 – smote them 1Sa 17:28 – Eliab’s anger 2Sa 19:43 – the words Act 7:26 – ye are 1Pe 3:1 – won
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 18:19. A brother offended Namely, by his brothers unkindness or injury; is harder to be won Or, is stronger and more impregnable; than a strong city Which is hardly to be conquered. And their contentions are like the bars of a castle Which are very strong, and not to be broken, as being made of iron or brass: see 1Ki 4:13; Isa 45:2. The truth of this assertion is confirmed by the testimony of several learned men who affirm the same thing; and the reason of it is evident, because the nearness of the relation greatly heightens the provocation, and love abused frequently turns to extreme hatred. There are no contentions, says Bishop Patrick, in his paraphrase on this verse, so sharp and obstinate as those among brethren; who grow so refractory when they have transgressed against each other, that it is easier to take a strong city, or to break the bars of a castle, than it is to compose their differences, and remove all the obstructions that lie in the way of their hearty reconciliation. The LXX., but on what authority does not appear, render this, , &c., A brother assisted by a brother is powerful, as a strong and high city, and as a well-founded kingdom. And Bochart, following the Vulgate, renders the verse, As a fortified city is a brother assisted by a brother, and they who mutually love one another are like the bars of a castle. But certainly neither of these readings is consistent with the Hebrew text, which is literally and faithfully translated in our English Bible.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
18:19 A brother offended [is harder to be won] than a strong city: and [their] contentions [are] like the {n} bars of a castle.
(n) Which for the strength of it will not bow or yield.