Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 19:13
A foolish son [is] the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife [are] a continual dropping.
13. continual ] Lit. thrusting, where one drop follows so closely upon another as to thrust it forward. “In quo gutta guttam trudit,” Maur.; “Tecta jugiter perstillantia litigiosa mulier,” Vulg. Comp. Pro 27:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Calamity – The Hebrew word is plural (as in Psa 57:1; Psa 91:3), and seems to express the multiplied and manifold sorrow caused by the foolish son.
Continual dropping – The irritating, unceasing, sound of the fall, drop after drop, of water through the chinks in the roof.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. The contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.] The man who has got such a wife is like a tenant who has got a cottage with a bad roof, through every part of which the rain either drops or pours. He can neither sit, stand, work, nor sleep, without being exposed to these droppings. God help the man who is in such a case, with house or wife!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Are like rain continually dropping upon a house, which by degrees marreth the house and household stuff, and driveth the inhabitants out of it. He compareth her to a
continual dropping, because of that inseparable union and necessary cohabitation of husband and wife together, notwithstanding such contentions.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. calamityliterally,”calamities,” varied and many.
continual droppingaperpetual annoyance, wearing out patience.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A foolish son [is] the calamity of his father,…. Or, “the calamities of his father” q; he brings them to him. A very great affliction he is, and which has many distresses and sorrows in it; as loss of reputation and credit in his family, which is sunk by his behaviour, instead of being supported and increased; loss of substance, through extravagance and riotous living, and the ruin of his soul and body by his wicked practices; see Pr 10:1;
and the contentions of a wife [are] a continual dropping; or like the dropping of rain, in a rainy day, into a house out of repair, and which is very uncomfortable to, the inhabitants of it; see Pr 27:15. Such are the contentions of a peevish, ill natured, and brawling wife, who is always scolding; and which is a continual vexation to a man, and renders him very uneasy in life: such a continual dropping was Xantippe to Socrates, who teased him night and day with her brawls and contentions r. A great unhappiness each of these must be!
q “calamitates”, Vatablus; “aerumnae”, Piscator, Michaelis; “causa aerumnarum”, Junius & Tremellius. r A. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 1. c. 17.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13 A foolish son is destruction for his father,
And a continual dropping are the contentions of a wife.
Regarding , vid., at Pro 17:4, cf. Pro 10:3. Line 2a is expanded, Pro 27:15, into a distich. The dropping is , properly striking (cf. Arab. tirad , from tarad III, hostile assault) when it pours itself forth, stroke (drop) after stroke = constantly, or with unbroken continuity. Lightning-flashes are called ( Jer Berachoth, p. 114, Shitomir’s ed.) , opp. , when they do not follow in intervals, but constantly flash; and b. Bechoroth 44a; , weeping eyes, , dropping eyes, and , eyes always flowing, are distinguished. An old interpreter ( vid., R. Ascher in Pesachim II No. 21) explains by: “which drops, and drops, and always drops.” An Arab proverb which I once heard from Wetzstein, says that there are three things which make our house intolerable: altakk (= aldhalf ), the trickling through of rain; alnakk , the contention of the wife; and albakk , bugs.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.
It is an instance of the vanity of the world that we are liable to the greatest grief in those things wherein we promise ourselves the greatest comfort. It is as it proves. What greater temporal comfort can a man have than a good wife and good children? Yet, 1. A foolish son is a great affliction, and may make a man wish a thousand times he had been written childless. A son that will apply himself to no study or business, that will take no advice, that lives a lewd, loose, rakish life, and spends what he has extravagantly, games it away and wastes it in the excess of riot, or that is proud, foppish, and conceited, such a one is the grief of his father, because he is the disgrace, and is likely to be the ruin, of his family. He hates all his labour, when he sees to whom he must leave the fruit of it. 2. A cross peevish wife is as great an affliction: Her contentions are continual; every day, and every hour in the day, she finds some occasion to make herself and those about her uneasy. Those that are accustomed to chide never want something or other to chide at; but it is a continual dropping, that is, a continual vexation, as it is to have a house so much out of repair that it rains in and a man cannot lie dry in it. That man has an uncomfortable life, and has need of a great deal of wisdom and grace to enable him to bear his affliction and do his duty, who has a sot for his son and a scold for his wife.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Home Blessings and Problems
Verse 13 describes two home problems: First, a wife whose nagging is like the continual dripping or leaking of rain and as difficult to restrain as restraining the wind, 21:9; 27:15-16. Second, a foolish son who causes multiplied sorrow, Pro 17:21; Pro 17:25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 19:13. Calamity. The word so translated is in the plural form, so as to express the continuance of the trouble.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 19:13-14; Pro. 19:18
DOMESTIC SORROW AND HOW TO AVOID IT
I. Two fruitful sources of sorrow. There are many fountains whence flow waters which sadly embitter the lives of men, but there is none outside of personal character which can more entirely darken their days than either of those mentioned in the thirteenth verse. To be either the father of a foolish son or the husband of a contentious wife is sorrow indeed. The first clause of this proverb is nearly the same as that in chap. Pro. 10:1, for Homiletics on which see page 137. The contentious wife is here compared to a continual dropping, because although the discomfort would not be great if it was only occasional, its perpetual existence makes life wretched. A drop of water falling upon a mans head is a very trifling matter, but one of the most dreaded tortures of the Spanish inquisition was that in which a man was placed in such a position that a single drop was constantly descending upon his head. Hour after hour, day after day, and night after night, the drops followed one another in regular and unbroken succession until the poor wretch first lost reason and then life. It is much harder to bear a burden which is never lifted from the shoulders than to carry one which is much heavier for a short time and for a very limited distance. So it is easier for a man to rise above trials which, although they may be almost overwhelming for a time, last but through a comparatively very short portion of his life. But the trial of a contentious wife is unceasing so long as the marriage bond continues, and it is this that makes it so greatly to be dreaded.
II. Means suggested whereby these sources of sorrow may be avoided. If so much depends upon our family relationshipsif the character of wife and child have so much to do with our weal and woeit becomes a most momentous question how to act so as to secure a prudent wife in the first place, and then to avoid the calamity of a foolish son. It must be remembered that the first is purely a matter of choice. A mans house and riches may be the inheritance of fathers, his social position may depend upon his parents, but his wife depends upon his own choice, and as a prudent wife is from the Lord, if he seeks the guidance of Him who is alone the infallible reader of character, instead of following the leadings of his fancy or consulting his worldly interests, he may with confidence expect to avoid the curse and secure the blessing. The other relationship is not one of choice. Our children are sent to us by the hand of God, and we have no more voice in determining their dispositions and mental constitutions than we have the colour of their hair, or any other bodily characteristic. But of two things we are certain.
1. That they will need a training which will not be always pleasant to them. Where there is disease in the body a cure cannot often be effected without a resort to unpleasantoften to painfulmeasures. It is not pleasant to a surgeon to use the knife, but it is often indispensable to his patients recovery to health. And both experience and revelation testify to the fact that our children come into the world with a moral taint upon themthat they have a tendency to go the wrong waythat, in the words of the Psalmist (Psa. 51:5) they are shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin. If a parent desires to avoid the calamity of a foolish son he must early recognise the truth that his child will not become morally wise unless he chasten him, unless he subject him to a system of moral training, unless he make him feel that punishment must follow sin. This will be as painful sometimes to the parent as to the child; the crying of the son will hurt the father more than the rod will hurt the child, but the end to be attained by present suffering must be borne in mind, and must nerve the heart and hand of him whose duty it is to administer chastisement. (On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. Pro. 13:24, page 334).
2. That there is reason to hope that children, if rightly trained, will be a joy and not a sorrow. There is hope. When a river has but just left its source among the hills, and the current is feeble, its progress can be stopped with ease; but when it has flowed on for a few miles and there is depth of water enough to float a fleet, it is almost impossible to stop its onward course. So, when the power of evil in the human soul is in its infancy, it is a much more easy task to restrain it than when it has acquired strength by years of uncontrolled dominion. When the young oak is but a few inches above the ground, the hand of the woodman can bend the slender stem as he pleases; but when it has grown for half a century he is powerless to turn it from the direction which it has taken. So a childs will is pliable to the wise training of the parent, and if the education of the moral nature be begun early, there is every reason to hope that it will acquire strength to overcome both sin within and without, and that a righteous manhood will in the future more than repay both him whose duty it is to chasten, and him upon whom the chastisement must fall.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 19:13-14. A prudent wife is not to be got by an imprudent mode of choice. The gift must be sought from the Lord. But this does not mean that the Lord is supernaturally to point out the individual. Our own discretion must be put in exercise, along with prayer for the divine superintendence and direction, so as to bring about a happy result. And then the precious gift should be owned, and the all-bountiful Giver praised for his goodness in bestowing it.Wardlaw.
Every good gift is from the Lord (Jas. 1:17) only, some in the ordinary course, others more directly from Him. Houses and riches, though His gifts, come by descent. They are the inheritance of fathers. The heir is known, and in the course of events he takes possession of his estate. But the prudent wife is wholly unconnected with the man. There has been no previous bond of relation. She is often brought from a distance. The Lord brought her to the man by His special Providence, and therefore as His special gift.Bridges.
Pro. 19:18. The great force of the rule is its timely applicationwhile there is hope. For hopeless the case may be, if the remedy be delayed. The cure of the evil must be commenced in infancy. Not a moment is to be lost. Betimes (chap. Pro. 13:24; Pro. 22:15)is the season when the good can be effected with the most ease, and the fewest strokes. The lesson of obedience should be learnt at the first dawn. One decided struggle and victory in very early life, may, under God, do much towards settling the point at once and to the end. On the other hand, sharp chastening may fail later to accomplish, what a slight rebuke in the early course might have wrought.Bridges.
You are here taught further, that firmness must be in union with affection in applying the rod. The words seem to express a harsh, yet it is an important and most salutary lesson:let not thy soul spare for his crying. The words do not mean, that you should not feel, very far from that. It was the knowledge that feeling was unavoidable, and that the strength and tenderness of it was ever apt to tempt parents to relent and desist, and leave their end unaccomplished,that made it necessary to warn against too ready a yielding to this natural inclination. The child may cry, and cry bitterly, previously to the correction; but, when you have reason to think the crying is for the rod rather than for the fault, and that, but for the threatened chastisement, the heart would probably have been unmoved, and the eyes dry;then you must not allow yourselves to be so unmanned by his tears, as to suspend your purpose, and decline its infliction. If a child perceives this (and soon are children sharp enough to find it out) he has discovered the way to move you next time; and will have recourse to it accordingly.Wardlaw.
On the subject of Pro. 19:15 see Homiletics on chap. Pro. 6:9-10, page 79.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(13) A continual dropping.As of the rain leaking through the flat roof of an eastern house on a wet day. (Comp. 27:15.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Calamity contentions “Two things,” says Patrick, “make a man exceedingly unhappy a dissolute son and a scolding wife; for the former breaks the heart of the father, and as to the other, he is no more able to live at home with her than to dwell in a rotten and ruinous house, through the roof of which the rain drops perpetually.” Smart says: “A continual dropping of water, for example, on the head, becomes, after a time, a means of the most exquisite suffering.” An Illyrian proverb says, “There is no necessity for him to go to war who has a smoking house, a dropping roof, or a contentious wife; for he has war in his own house.” Compare Pro 21:9; Pro 27:15; Pro 10:1; Pro 15:20; Pro 19:21; Pro 19:25. See note on Pro 27:15.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 13. A foolish son is the calamity of his father,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 19:13. The contentions of a wife, &c. The author of the Observations remarks, that it is no wonder the easterns sleep on the tops of houses only in summer, since, however agreeable their arbours and wicker-work closets may be in the dry part of the year, they must be very disagreeable in the wet, and they that should then lodge in them, would be exposed to a continual dropping. To be limited consequently to such a place, and to have no other apartment to live in, must be very incommoding. To such circumstances then, probably, it is that Solomon alludes, when he saith, It is better to dwell in a corner of the house-top, than with a brawling woman in a wide house; (chap. Pro 21:9 and Pro 25:24.) a corner, covered with boughs or rushes, and made into a little arbour, in which they used to sleep, in summer, but which must have been a very incommodious place, to have made an intire dwelling. To the same allusion belong those other expressions, that speak of the contentions of a wife being like a continual dropping; as in the present passage, and chap. Pro 27:15. Put together, they amount to this: “It is better to have no other habitation than an arbour on the house-top, and be there exposed to the wet of winter, which is oftentimes of several days continuance, than to dwell in a wide and commodious house with a brawling woman; for her contentions are a continual dropping; and, wide as the house may be, you will not be able to avoid them, and get out of their reach.” Nor will it be any objection to this observation, if it should be affirmed, that the boughs and wicker-work closets are not made as the corners of their parapet-walls, but on the middle of their roofs, as very probable they are, the better to receive the fresh air; since the word pinnah, translated corner, does not only signify a place where two walls join, but a tower also; as appears from Zep 1:16 and consequently may import such a sort of arbour, as well as one formed by means of two joining walls.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping. House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD. Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul; but he that despiseth his ways shall die. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again. Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again. Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand. The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar. The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil. A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again. Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge. He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity. Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.
I do not wish to swell the commentary for the reasons before given. And indeed if the Reader be under divine teaching, this will supersede all observations of mine. But I hope he will find in all these verses, more or less, somewhat to lead his mind to Christ, and in Christ to find the truest application.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 19:13 A foolish son [is] the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife [are] a continual dropping.
Ver. 13. A foolish son is the calamity of his father. ] Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts. Let them prove never so towardly, yet there is somewhat to do to breed them up, and bring them to good. But if they answer not expectation, the parent’s grief is inexpressible. See the note on Pro 10:1 , and xv. 20. How many an unhappy father is tempted to wish with Augustus,
‘O utinam caelebs vixissem, orbusque perissem?’
And the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.
a Coniugium coniurgium. De discordi coniugio Themistocles dixit, , .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
is the calamity = is a great trouble to. Hebrew “troubles” (plural) for great trouble. Figure of speech Metonymy (of Effect), put for action of the foolish son which brings it on.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 19:13
Pro 19:13
“A foolish son is the calamity of his father; And the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.”
“A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.” “A foolish son can bring a flood of troubles to his father; and a nagging wife is like water that won’t stop dripping.
Pro 19:13. A man is in a bad way when his children are no good and his wife is a constant nagger. Concerning calamity Pulpit Commentary says, Calamity in the Hebrew is in the plural number, as if to mark the many and continued sorrows which a bad son brings upon his father, how he causes evil after evil to harass and distress; and of the contentions of a wife it says, The flat roofs of Eastern houses, formed of planks loosely joined and covered with a coating of clay or plaster, were always subject to leakage in heavy rains. The irritating altercations and bickering of a cross-grained wife are compared to this continuous drip of water. A Scotch saying: A leaky house and a scolding wife are two bad companions. Other passages on the foolish son: Pro 10:1; Pro 15:20; Pro 17:21; Pro 17:25. Other passages on the contentious wife: Pro 21:9; Pro 27:15.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
foolish: Pro 10:1, Pro 15:20, Pro 17:21, Pro 17:25, 2Sa 13:1 – 2Sa 18:33, Ecc 2:18, Ecc 2:19
the contentions: Pro 21:9, Pro 21:19, Pro 25:24, Pro 27:15, Job 14:19
Reciprocal: Pro 12:4 – virtuous Pro 14:1 – the foolish Pro 14:35 – king’s Pro 30:23 – an odious Mat 19:10 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 19:13. A foolish son, &c. Two things make a man exceeding unhappy, a dissolute son, and a contentious wife: for the former is a perpetual grief to his father, to see him likely to prove the utter destruction of his family; and the quarrels of a wife spoil a mans happiness, like perpetual droppings, which wear away what they fall upon.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
19:13 A foolish son [is] the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife [are] a continual {e} dropping.
(e) As rain that drops and rots the house.