An angry man stirreth up strife - His spirit begets its like wherever he goes.

And a furious man aboundeth in transgression - His furious spirit is always carrying him into extremes, and each of these is a transgression.

An angry man stirreth up strife,.... In families, neighbourhoods, communities, churches, and commonwealths; that is, one that is given to anger, and gives way to it, in whom it prevails and rules;

and a furious man aboundeth in transgression; or, "a master of wrath or fury" (y); one much addicted to it: or, "the husband of wrath": wedded to it, as a man to his wife: or, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "who is easy to be angry"; is easily provoked, wrath rises up in him at once; this leads him on to many sins, as cursing, swearing, murder,

(y) "dominus furoris", so Vatablus, Piscator, Michaelis.

The following group begins with a proverb which rhymes by מדון, with מנון of the foregoing, and extends on to the end of this Hezekiah collection:

22 A man of anger stirreth up strife;

     And a passionate man aboundeth in transgression.

Line first is a variation of Proverbs 15:18 and Proverbs 28:25. אישׁ and בּעל as here, but in the reverse order at Proverbs 22:24.

(Note: For אישׁ־אף (Lwenstein after Norzi) is to be written, with Baer (Thorath Emeth, p. 19), אישׁ אף ,)91. Thus also in Cod. Jaman.)

אף here means anger, not the nose, viz., the expanded nostrils (Schultens). In רב־פּשׁע the פשׁע is, after Proverbs 14:29; Proverbs 28:16; Proverbs 20:27, the governed genitive; Hitzig construes it in the sense of פשׁע רב, Psalm 19:2, with יגרה, but one does not say גּרה פשׁע; and that which is true of רבּים, that, after the manner of a numeral, it can precede its substantive (vid., under Psalm 7:26; Psalm 89:51), cannot be said of רב. Much (great) in wickedness denotes one who heaps up many wicked actions, and burdens himself with greater guilt (cf. פשׁע, Proverbs 29:16). The wrathful man stirreth up (vid., under Proverbs 15:18) strife, for he breaks through the mutual relations of men, which rest on mutual esteem and love, and by means of his passionate conduct he makes enemies of those against whom he thinks that he has reason for being angry; that on account of which he is angry can be settled without producing such hostility, but passion impels him on, and misrepresents the matter; it embitters hearts, and tears them asunder. The lxx has, instead of רב, ἐξώρυξεν, of dreaming, כרה (Proverbs 16:27).

An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.

22. (Compare Pr 15:18). Such are delighted by discord and violence.

29:19. Here is an unprofitable, slothful, wicked servant; one that serves not from conscience, or love, but from fear. 20. When a man is self-conceited, rash, and given to wrangling, there is more hope of the ignorant and profligate. 21. Good usage to a servant does not mean indulgence, which would ruin even a child. The body is a servant to the soul; those that humour it, and are over-tender of it, will find it forget its place. 22. An angry, passionate disposition makes men provoking to one another, and provoking to God. 23. Only those who humble themselves shall be exalted and established. 24. The receiver is as bad as the thief. 25. Many are ashamed to own Christ now; and he will not own them in the day of judgment. But he that trusts in the Lord will be saved from this snare.