Today, I am reading and commenting on  Proverbs 14-17.

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I think the first verse in this passage refers to the stereotype of the woman who either says good things about her husband to make him feel more successful, or constantly puts him down in front of others to make herself look better.  However, the idea in the verse applies to husbands as well.  We have similar stereotypes of men who talk bad about their wives in front of others.  In either case, the writer here tells us that those who are wise will build up their spouse while the foolish attempt to make them look small.  Actually, this passage contains repeated references to the importance of choosing our words carefully and even wisely choosing when to, and when not to, talk.  Along with that the writer also tells us in various ways that our tone matters when we speak.  How we say things effects how people react to what we say.  If we speak gently, people will respond more calmly, if we speak harshly we will likely stir up anger.  Related to that, he warns us against seeking to profit from strife and conflict.  It might seem that we can benefit from strife between others, but conflict often spirals out of control and brings destruction in unexpected ways, harming those who seemed uninvolved in the conflict.

There is so much more to this, but it is difficult to write a short summary of it because it contains so many sayings which apply to different aspects of acting wisely.  I encourage all of my readers to read the passage for themselves and pick a few of the proverbs within it to meditate on.  I will finish my commenting by pointing to the writer’s them in the beginning of chapter 16.  There he writes that we can make whatever plans we choose, but God decides how they will turn out.  So, he recommends that we commit all of our work to serving God, because we are going to serve Him whether we choose to do so or not.  If we choose to serve God, we will get blessings from doing so.  If we refuse to serve God, we will suffer as we end up doing so.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.