Patience shows understanding, while quick temper publicly magnifies folly.
In Proverbs 14:29, Solomon writes, He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly (v. 29). Wisdom is patient. Anger is not automatically sinful, but haste in anger often is.
To be slow to anger shows great understanding because restraint allows truth, proportion, and mercy to shape response. The patient person is not empty of feeling. He is governed by wisdom rather than by impulse.
The one who is quick-tempered, however, exalts folly. He lifts foolishness high by giving it visible expression. Every impulsive outburst becomes a public display of inner disorder. This principle is echoed later in the scriptures, warning that human anger does not achieve God’s righteousness (to learn more about how rejecting impulsive anger and receiving God’s word leads to righteousness, please read our commentary on James 1:19-21).
Proverbs 14:29
29 He who is slow to anger has great understanding,
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Proverbs 14:29 meaning
In Proverbs 14:29, Solomon writes, He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly (v. 29). Wisdom is patient. Anger is not automatically sinful, but haste in anger often is.
To be slow to anger shows great understanding because restraint allows truth, proportion, and mercy to shape response. The patient person is not empty of feeling. He is governed by wisdom rather than by impulse.
The one who is quick-tempered, however, exalts folly. He lifts foolishness high by giving it visible expression. Every impulsive outburst becomes a public display of inner disorder. This principle is echoed later in the scriptures, warning that human anger does not achieve God’s righteousness (to learn more about how rejecting impulsive anger and receiving God’s word leads to righteousness, please read our commentary on James 1:19-21).