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Proverbs of Solomon
Proverbs › Chapter 21 › Proverbs 21:19

What Does Proverbs 21:19 Mean?

Better to dwell in the wilderness,Than with a contentious and angry woman.Proverbs 21:19 · NKJV

Quick answer

The same trade, made worse. A corner of the roof has become open country, and the verse adds anger to contention.

Read both lines

Repetition raises the volume in this literature, and both halves here are escalated. The refuge has moved from a rooftop, which is at least still home, to the wilderness, which is uninhabited and dangerous. And the second line adds a noun: not only midyanim, contentions, but kaas, vexation or anger. The received text also carries a scribal variant in the word for contentions, which changes nothing in sense. What the pairing of verses 9 and 19 establishes is that the book is not making a passing remark. It is describing something it thinks readers live inside.

The guard at verse 9 applies here in full and is not repeated: this is a household at war, not a description of women, and where conflict has become abuse it is not the relevant verse.

Related: Proverbs 21:9 · Proverbs 25:24 · Proverbs 19:13 · Proverbs 27:15

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.

Go Deeper

If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.