A fool's wrath is presently known: but a prudent [man] covereth shame.
Ver. 16. A fool's wrath is presently known.] He hath no power over his passions. Hence פתי, a fool, and פתאם, suddenly, rashly, are from the same root. Like tow, he is soon kindled; like a pot, he soon boils; and like a candle whose tallow is mixed with brine, as soon as lighted he spits up and down the room. A fool uttereth all his mind. Pro 29:11 The Septuagint render it, All his anger - θυμον. For, as the Hebrews well note in a proverb they have, A man's mind is soon discovered, bekis, bekos, becoynos; - in loculis, in poculis, in ira; - in his purse, in his drink, in his anger. See my "Common Place of Anger."
But a wise man covereth shame.] By concealing his wrath, or rather by suppressing it when it would break forth to his disgrace, or the just grief of another. Ut fragilis glacies, occidit ira mora. a This was Saul's wisdom; 1Sa 10:27 and Jonathan's, when, incensed by his father's frowardness, he went shooting; 1Sa 20:35 and Ahasuerus, when in a rage against Haman, he walked into the garden. The philosopher wished Augustus, when angry, to say over the Greek alphabet; Ambrose desired an angel's authority; Gal 1:8 Theodosius to repeat the Lord's Prayer before he decreed anything.
a Ovid.