SEV Biblia, Chapter 27:4
Cruel es la ira, e impetuoso el furor; mas ¿quién parará delante de la envidia?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Proverbs 27:4
Verse 4. Who is able to stand before envy? ] The rabbins have a curious story on this subject, and it has been formed by the moderns into a fable. There were two persons, one covetous and the other envious, to whom a certain person promised to grant whatever they should ask; but double to him who should ask last. The covetous man would not ask first, because he wished to get the double portion, and the envious man would not make the first request because he could not bear the thoughts of thus benefiting his neighbour. However, at last he requested that one of his eyes should be taken out, in order that his neighbour might lose both.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 4. Wrath [is] cruel, and anger [is] outrageous , etc.] Or “an inundation” f744 ; it is like the breaking in of the sea, or a flood of mighty waters, which know no bounds, and there is no stopping them: so cruel and outrageous were the wrath and anger of Simeon and Levi, in destroying the Shechemites; of Pharaoh, in making the Israelites to serve with hard bondage, and ordering their male children to be killed and drowned; and of Herod, in murdering the infants in and about Bethlehem; but who [is] able to stand before envy ? which is secret in a man’s heart, and privately contrives and works the ruin of another, and against which there no guarding. All mankind in Adam fell before the envy of Satan; for it was through the envy of the devil that sin and death came into the world, in the Apocrypha: “Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.” (Wisdom 2:24) Abel could not stand before the envy of Cain; nor Joseph before the envy of his brethren; nor Christ before the envy of the Jews, his bitter enemies; and, where it is, there is confusion and every evil work, ( James 3:14,16). An envious man is worse than an angry and wrathful man; his wrath and anger may be soon over, or there may be ways and means of appeasing him; but envy continues and abides, and works insensibly.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 3, 4 - Those who have no command of their passions, sink under the load.
Original Hebrew
אכזריות 395 חמה 2534 ושׁטף 7858 אף 639 ומי 4310 יעמד 5975 לפני 6440 קנאה׃ 7068
