Proverbs 14:17 - Exposition

He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly. The contrast to the irascible, passionate man is seen in the man slow to anger ( Proverbs 14:29 ; Proverbs 15:18 ). Such a one, in his haste and passion, does things which in calmer moments he must see are foolish and ridiculous. Says Euripides ('Hyp.,' Fragm.)—

ἔξω γὰρ ὀργῆς πᾶς ἀνὴρ σοφώτερος

"Wiser is every man from passion freed."

"Be not angry," says the Talmud, "and you will not sin." Cato, 'Dist.,' 1:37—

" Ipse tibi moderare tuis ut parcere possis ."

And a man of wicked devices is hated. The contrast is not between the different ways in which the two characters are regarded, as that one is despised and ridiculed, and the other hated; but two kinds of evil are set forth in contradistinction, viz. hasty anger and deliberate plotting against others. Septuagint, "The irascible man ( ὀξύθυμος ) acts without deliberation. but the prudent man endureth much." The Hebrew term, "man of devices," being ambiguous, the LXX . takes it in a favourable sense, φρόνιμος ; and they have a different reading of the verb.