Like charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
Parallel translations
- WEB As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindling strife.
- KJV As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.
- NKJV As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, So is a contentious man to kindle strife.
- NASB Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, So is a contentious person to kindle strife.
- NLT A quarrelsome person starts fights as easily as hot embers light charcoal or fire lights wood.
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
A contentious person fuels strife the way coals and wood feed a fire. Quarrelsome people keep conflict burning.
Overview
Complementing verse 20, this names the contentious individual as the kindling that ignites and sustains disputes. The proverb warns against the destructive influence of those who love conflict. It commends the opposite: a peaceable spirit that quenches rather than inflames strife.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Prov 15:18A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.
- Prov 29:22An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.
- 2 Sam 20:1Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!”
- Prov 30:33For as the churning of milk yields butter, and the twisting of the nose draws blood, so the stirring of anger brings forth strife.”
- Prov 10:12Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all transgressions.
- 1 Kgs 12:20When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.
- Ps 120:4Sharp arrows will come from the warrior, with burning coals of the broom tree!
- 1 Kgs 12:2–3When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since.
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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 26:21 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.