Proverbs 27:16

16 anyone who can control her can control the wind or pick up oil in his hand.

Proverbs 27:16 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 27:16

Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind
Whoever attempts to stop her brawls and contentions, to repress and restrain them, and hinder her voice being heard in the streets, and endeavours to hide the shame that comes upon herself and family, attempts a thing as impossible as to hide the wind in the palm of a man's hand, or to stop it from blowing; for as that, by being restrained or pent up by any methods that can be used, makes the greater noise, so, by all the means that are used to still a contentious woman, she is but the more noisy and clamorous, and becomes more shameful and infamous; and the ointment of his right hand, [which] bewrayeth [itself]:
or "will call" or "calls" F8, and says, in effect, Here am I; for the smell of it, which cannot be hid when held in a man's hand, betrays it; and the faster he holds it, and the more he presses and squeezes it, and the more it is heated hereby, the more it diffuses its savour, and is known to be where it is; and so all attempts to stop the mouth of a brawling woman does but cause her to brawl the louder.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 (arqy) "clamabit", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Vatablus, Mercerus; "vocabit", Baynus; "clamat", Piscator, Michaelis; "praeconem agit", Schultens.

Proverbs 27:16 In-Context

14 Greeting a neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning will be viewed as a curse.
15 The constant dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike;
16 anyone who can control her can control the wind or pick up oil in his hand.
17 As iron sharpens iron, so friends sharpen each other's faces.
18 Those who tend a fig tree will eat its fruit, and those who look after their master will be honored.
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