Proverbs 25:8 - Exposition

A tristich with no parallelism. Go not forth hastily to strive. The idea is either of one entering into litigation with undue haste, or of one hurrying to meet an adversary. St. Jerome, taking in the final words of the previous verse, renders, Quae viderunt oculi tui, ne proferas in jurgio cito , "What thine eyes have seen reveal not hastily in a quarrel." This is like Proverbs 25:9 below, and Christ's injunction, "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone" ( Matthew 18:15 ). Lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof. The Hebrew is elliptical, "Lest by chance ( פֶן ) thou do something (bad, humiliating) in the end thereof." But Delitzsch, Nowack, and others consider the sentence as interrogative (as 1 Samuel 20:19 ), and translate, "That it may not be said in the end thereof, What wilt thou do?" Either way, the warning comes to this—Do not enter hastily upon strife of any kind, lest thou be utterly at a loss what to do. When thy neighbour hath put thee to shame, by putting thee in the wrong, gaining his cause, or getting the victory over thee in some way. Septuagint, "Fall not quickly into a contest, lest thou repent at the last." There is an English proverb, "Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance;" and "Haste is the beginning of wrath, its end is repentance."