Proverbs 15:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

A soft answer, &c. A mild, submissive, and yielding answer to him who severely chides, or reproves, turns away wrath And prevents the further progress of it. The word מענה, here rendered answer, however, signifies as well what is first said, as the reply to it, and may not improperly be translated speech, or discourse. But grievous words stir up strife But sharp, contemptuous, and insolent replies, or speeches, incense it the more, and raise a passion where there was none before, and perhaps cause it to flame forth into fury. Melancthon, in his short lectures upon this book, commends this lesson very much to his scholars, considering it as a general precept for the preservation of peace, and avoiding unnecessary contentions, which commonly arise from pride, ambition, emulation, and wrath, which excite men either to give ill words, or to return worse to those that are given them; endeavouring to overcome by sharpness and bitterness, not by lenity and moderation. Solomon, he says, meant by this caution, that we should not think it enough not to begin strife and contention; but that, if others begin it, we should not continue it by rough answers, but endeavour to make an end of it presently, by softening the matter, and should yield much for the sake of tranquillity; and he thinks it is a precept of the same nature with that of Pythagoras; Stir not up fire with a sword: see Bishop Patrick.