A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
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Ephrem The Syrian
AD 373
Our Lord gave most of his assistance with persuasion rather than with admonition. Gentle showers soften the earth and thoroughly penetrate it, but a beating rain hardens and compresses the surface of the earth so that it will not be absorbed. “A harsh statement evokes anger,” and with it comes injury. Whenever a harsh word opens a door, anger enters in, and on the heels of anger, injury.
Fury. This was seen in Nabal and Roboam, while Gideon and Abigail showed the good effects of a mild answer, Judges viii. 1., and 1 Kings x. 25., and 3 Kings xii. 11.
“Anger even ruins the prudent: a soft answer turns away anger, but a painful word arouses rage.” All things depend on our decision, certainly also to raise anger or to soothe. It is not the Lord who gets angry, but it is in our power to cause his anger or the opposite. And if anger even ruins the prudent, how much more will it ruin those about whom it was said [that] anger destroys the imprudent? And this certainly happens also to the prudent because of some negligence. But “a soft answer turns away anger,” that is, a way of answering in open humility and without any harshness. Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, Fragment
