The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and [it is] his glory to pass over a transgression.
Ver. 11. The discretion of a man deferreth his anger.] Plato, when angry with his servant, would not correct him at that time, but let him go with Vapulares nisi irascerer, I am too angry to beat thee. A young man that had been brought up with Plato, returning home to his father's house, and hearing his father chide and exclaim furiously, said, "I have never seen the like with Plato." a See Trapp on " Pro 14:29 " Anger, by being deferred, may be diminished, so it be not concealed for a further opportunity of mischief, as Absalom's towards Amnon, and Tiberius's, who, the more he meditated revenge, the more did time and delay sharpen it. And the farther off he threatened, the heavier the stroke fell. b
And it is his glory to pass over a transgression.] Heb., To pass by it, as not knowing of it, or not troubled at it. Thus David was deaf to the railings of his enemies, and "as a dumb man, in whose mouth are no reproofs." Socrates, when he was publicly abused in a comedy, laughed at it. Polyagrus vero seipsum strangulabat, saith Aelian; but Polyagrus, not able to bear such an indignity, hanged himself. Augustus likewise did but laugh at the satires and buffooneries which they had published against him; and when the senate would have further informed him of them, he would not hear them. The manlier any man is, the milder and readier to pass by an offence. This shows that he hath much of God in him (if he do it from a right principle), who bears with our evil manners, c and forgives our trespasses, beseeching us to be reconciled. When any provoke us, we use to say, We will be even with him. There is a way whereby we may be not even with him, but above him, and that is, forgive him. Wink at small faults especially. Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit vivere.
a Seneca, De Ira, lib. iii. cap. 11.
b "Lentus in meditando ubi prorupisset," &c. - Tacit.
c ετροποφορησεν. Act 13:18 [See the marginal reading in Authorised Version.]