Proverbs 26:21
19 so is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I was only joking!”
20 Without wood, a fire goes out; without gossip, a conflict ceases.
Like charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
22 The words of a gossip are like choice morsels that go down into the inmost being.
23 Like glaze covering an earthen vessel are burning lips and a wicked heart.
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- Like charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
- KJV
- As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.
- WEB
- As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindling strife.
- ASV
- [As] coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire, So is a contentious man to inflame strife.
- DARBY
- [As] coals for hot coals, and wood for fire, so is a contentious man to inflame strife.
- BLB
- Charcoal to burning coals, and wood to a fire, so [is] a man of quarrels to kindle strife.
- ÅB
- Som kull blir til glør, og som ved nærer ild, slik voldes kiv av en trettekjær mann.
- OTB
- Som kull til glør og ved til ild, slik er en stridslysten person for å tenne strid.
- B1930
- Som kull blir til glør, og som ved nærer ild, slik voldes kiv av en trettekjær mann.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Proverbs 15:18
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.
Read in contextProverbs 29:22
An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.
Read in context2 Samuel 20:1
Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!”
Read in contextPsalms 120:4
Sharp arrows will come from the warrior, with burning coals of the broom tree!
Read in contextProverbs 10:12
Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all transgressions.
Read in context1 Kings 12:2–3
When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since.
Read in context1 Kings 12:20
When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.
Read in contextProverbs 30:33
For as the churning of milk yields butter, and the twisting of the nose draws blood, so the stirring of anger brings forth strife.”
Read in context