Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.
Parallel translations
- WEB For lack of wood a fire goes out. Without gossip, a quarrel dies down.
- BSB Without wood, a fire goes out; without gossip, a conflict ceases.
- NKJV Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; And where there is no talebearer, strife ceases.
- NASB For lack of wood the fire goes out, And where there is no gossiper, quarreling quiets down.
- NLT Fire goes out without wood, and quarrels disappear when gossip stops.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
As fire dies without wood, a quarrel dies without gossip. Removing the fuel of slander ends conflict.
Overview
The proverb identifies the gossip or whisperer as the fuel that keeps strife burning, so withdrawing it brings peace. It commends restraining the tongue to extinguish needless conflict (Prov 16:28). Believers are called to be peacemakers who starve quarrels rather than feed them (Matt 5:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Prov 16:28A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.
- Prov 22:10Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease.
- Jas 3:6And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
- Prov 26:22The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 26:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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