“A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.”
My Notes
What Does Proverbs 15:18 Mean?
Solomon contrasts two types of people through their effect on conflict. The wrathful man (ish chemah — a man of heat, a person whose default temperature is burning) stirs up strife. The Hebrew garah means to stir, provoke, agitate — like stirring a pot that was about to settle. Strife that might have died down gets revived by the person who carries anger as a permanent condition.
The slow to anger person (erekh appayim — long of nostrils, literally: someone who takes a long breath before reacting) doesn't just avoid strife. They appease it — yashqit riv, they quiet the quarrel. The Hebrew shaqat means to calm, to make tranquil, to settle. The patient person's effect on conflict is sedative. Their presence actually lowers the temperature in the room.
The proverb is about influence, not just character. Both types of people change their environment. The wrathful person walks into a room and strife increases. The patient person walks into a room and strife decreases. You are either a thermostat or a thermometer in every relational space you enter. The wrathful person reflects and amplifies whatever heat is present. The patient person regulates it.
Reflection Questions
- 1.When you leave a conflict, do you typically leave the room hotter or cooler than you found it?
- 2.Is there a relationship where you've been 'stirring the pot' — keeping strife alive that would otherwise have settled?
- 3.What does it feel like physically when you practice being 'long of nostrils' — taking a slow breath before responding?
- 4.Who in your life models the patient person in this proverb — and what do you notice about their effect on conflict?
Devotional
You either stir the pot or settle it. There's no neutral. Every time you enter a conflict — a tense conversation, a family disagreement, a workplace dispute, an online argument — you're either raising the temperature or lowering it. The wrathful person adds heat without even trying. Their tone, their body language, their word choice — everything escalates. The patient person does the opposite. They absorb heat. They slow things down. They create space for sanity to return.
The word for "slow to anger" literally means long of nostrils — someone who takes a long, slow breath before responding. That image is worth holding onto. The next time you feel the heat rising in a conversation, take a long breath through your nose. That breath is the difference between stirring and settling. It's the physical enactment of patience. Your body can teach your soul what slowness feels like.
Ask yourself honestly: when you leave a room, is there more peace in it or less? When you hang up the phone, is the other person calmer or more agitated? When you respond to the text, does the thread cool down or heat up? You're not a bystander in conflict. You're an active ingredient. And Solomon says the ingredient that appeases strife — that quiets the quarrel, that settles the room — is patience. Not passivity. Patience. The active, deliberate choice to bring your full self into a tense space and use it to calm rather than combust.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
A wrathful man stirreth up strife,.... A man of a wrathful disposition, of a furious spirit, of an angry temper; that is…
Here is, 1. Passion the great make-bate. Thence come wars and fightings. Anger strikes the fire which sets cities and…
strife … strife Contention … strife, R.V., to indicate that the Heb. words are different.
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture