Verse 15

By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded, and a gentle tongue breaks a bone.

Other Translations

Referenced Verses

  • Prov 15:1 : 1 A soft answer turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger.
  • Eccl 10:4 : 4 If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place; for yielding pacifies great offenses.
  • Prov 16:14 : 14 The wrath of a king is as messengers of death, but a wise man will pacify it.
  • Gen 32:4-9 : 4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall you speak to my lord Esau; Your servant Jacob says this, I have lived with Laban, and stayed there until now: 5 And I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight. 6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him. 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, herds, and camels, into two groups; 8 And said, If Esau comes to one group and attacks it, then the other group which is left shall escape. 9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will deal well with you: 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with my staff I crossed over this Jordan; and now I have become two groups. 11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and attack me, and the mother with the children. 12 And you said, I will surely do you good, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. 13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of what came to his hand a present for Esau his brother; 14 Two hundred she-goats, and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, 15 Thirty milking camels with their young, forty cows, and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten foals. 16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said to his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space between drove and drove. 17 And he commanded the first, saying, When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, saying, Whose are you? and where are you going? and whose are these ahead of you? 18 Then you shall say, They are your servant Jacob's; it is a present sent to my lord Esau: and behold, he is also behind us. 19 And so he commanded the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall you speak to Esau, when you find him. 20 And say moreover, Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me. 21 So the present went over before him: and he himself lodged that night in the camp.
  • 1 Sam 25:14 : 14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed on them.
  • 1 Sam 25:24-44 : 24 And she fell at his feet and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be; and let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. 25 Please do not let my lord regard this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent. 26 Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, since the LORD has restrained you from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal. 27 And now this blessing, which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant, for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and evil has not been found in you all your days. 29 Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life; but the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your God; and the lives of your enemies, He shall sling out, as from the pocket of a sling. 30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD has done for my lord according to all the good He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, 31 that this will be no grief to you, nor a cause of remorse of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant. 32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. 33 And blessed is your advice, and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For indeed, as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal. 35 So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, Go up in peace to your house; see, I have listened to your voice and respected your person. 36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light. 37 But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. 38 And it came about ten days later that the LORD struck Nabal, and he died. 39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil; for the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and spoke with Abigail, to take her to him as a wife. 40 And when the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David sent us to you, to take you to him as a wife. 41 And she arose and bowed herself with her face to the ground, and said, Behold, let your maidservant be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. 42 And Abigail hurried and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five maids accompanying her; so she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. 43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and so both of them were his wives. 44 But Saul had given Michal, his daughter, David's wife, to Palti, the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.