14The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.
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Cross-References
From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.
Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. …
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. …
Commentary
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Bible (1710)
(vv. 14)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 caut…
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