Proverbs 26:21
As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire, so an angry man stirreth up strife.
Douay-Rheims 1899
In The King James Version
As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.
In Context
22The words of a talebearer are as it were simple, but they reach to the innermost parts of the belly.
Cross References
2 Samuel 20:1And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Seba, the son of Bochri, a man of Jemini: and he sounded the trumpet, and said: We have no part in David, nor inheritance in the son of Isai: return to thy dwellings, O Israel.
1 Kings 12:20And it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they gathered an assembly, and sent and called him, and made him king over all Israel, and there was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Juda only.
Proverbs 10:12Hatred stirreth up strifes: and charity covereth all sins.
Proverbs 29:22A passionate man provoketh quarrels: and he that is easily stirred up to wrath, shall be more prone to sin.
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 26:21-23
20 Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth. 21 As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife. 22 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. Contention is as a fire; it heats the spirit, burns up all that is good, and puts families and societies into a flame. Now here we are told how that fire is commonly kindled and kept burning, that we may avoid the occasions… Read the whole commentary →