Bible Strands
Proverbs 14:29
A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Wisdom literature, traditionally Solomon's instruction to a broad audience of those seeking understanding. The verse stands as a standalone aphorism among similar contrasts in Proverbs 14.
The words — The contrast is built on spatial terms: אֶ֣רֶךְ ('erekh, "long") and קְצַ־ (ke.tzar, "short"), applied to a person's disposition. The quick-tempered man is literally "short of spirit" (קְצַר־רוּחַ), a brevity of breath.
The thread — Ecclesiastes 7:9 warns that anger "settles in the lap of a fool," and Proverbs 14:17 states the quick-tempered man "acts foolishly." James 1:19 echoes the same principle: slow to anger.
Why it lands — It reframes patience as a cognitive capacity (great understanding) rather than merely a moral virtue, and quick temper as a failure of comprehension. The reader is asked to see their own reactivity as a limit on what they can perceive.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.
Cross-references
- James 1:19 My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
- Ecclesiastes 7:9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the lap of a fool.
- Proverbs 14:17 A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a devious man is hated.
- Proverbs 15:18 A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.
- Proverbs 19:11 A man’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.
- Proverbs 16:32 He who is slow to anger is better than a warrior, and he who controls his temper is greater than one who captures a city.
- Proverbs 25:28 Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who does not control his temper.
- Numbers 12:3 Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.
- Proverbs 22:24 Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man,
- Matthew 11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.