Proverbs 19:13

13 A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.

Proverbs 19:13 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 19:13

A foolish son [is] the calamity of his father
Or, "the calamities of his father" ^F17; he brings them to him. A very great affliction he is, and which has many distresses and sorrows in it; as loss of reputation and credit in his family, which is sunk by his behaviour, instead of being supported and increased; loss of substance, through extravagance and riotous living, and the ruin of his soul and body by his wicked practices; see ( Proverbs 10:1 ) ; and the contentions of a wife [are] a continual dropping;
or like the dropping of rain, in a rainy day, into a house out of repair, and which is very uncomfortable to, the inhabitants of it; see ( Proverbs 27:15 ) . Such are the contentions of a peevish, ill natured, and brawling wife, who is always scolding; and which is a continual vexation to a man, and renders him very uneasy in life: such a continual dropping was Xantippe to Socrates, who teased him night and day with her brawls and contentions ^F18. A great unhappiness each of these must be!

---

FOOTNOTES:

F17 (twwh) "calamitates", Vatablus; "aerumnae", Piscator, Michaelis; "causa aerumnarum", Junius & Tremellius.
F18 A. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 1. c. 17.

Proverbs 19:13 In-Context

11 A man’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.

12 A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

13 A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.

14 Houses and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.

15 Laziness brings on deep sleep, and an idle soul will suffer hunger.