Proverbs 19:11 - Exposition

The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; maketh him slow to anger. "A merciful man is long suffering," Septuagint; "The teaching of a man is known by patience," Vulgate. (See Proverbs 14:17 , Proverbs 14:29 .) The Greek moralist gives the advice—

νίκησον ὀργὴν τῷ λογίζεσθαι καλῶς

"Thine anger quell by reason's timely aid."

The contrary disposition betokens folly ( Proverbs 14:17 ). It is his glory to pus over a transgression. It is a real triumph and glory for man to forgive and to take no notice of injuries offered him. Thus in his poor way he imitates Almighty God. Here it is discretion or prudence that makes a man patient and forgiving; elsewhere the same effect is attributed to love ( Proverbs 10:12 ; Proverbs 17:9 ). The Septuagint Version is hard to understand: τὸ δὲ καύχημα αὐτοῦ ἐπέρχεται παρανόμοις , "And his glorying cometh on the transgressors;" but, taken in connection with the former hemistich, it seems to mean that the patient man's endurance of the contradictions of sinners is no reproach or disgrace to him, but redounds to his credit and virtue. " Vincit qui patitur ," "He conquers who endures."