Proverbs 21:19 (BSB)

Better to live in the desert than with a contentious and ill-tempered wife.

From Proverbs 21. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 21:19

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 21:19: Note, 1. Unbridled passions embitter and spoil the comfort of all relations. A peevish angry wife makes her husband's life uneasy, to whom she should be a comfort and a meet help. Those cannot dwell in peace and happiness that cannot dwell in peace and love. Even those that are one flesh, if they be not withal one spirit, have no joy of their union. 2.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 21:19: It is better to dwell in the wilderness,.... Where persons live without shelter, and are not only exposed to storms and tempests, but to beasts of prey; where is want of the necessaries of life, and no society; where no "speech" is, as the word (e) for wilderness may signify; yet it is better to dwell in such a place, where no human voice is...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 21:19: (Compare Pro 21:9). wilderness--pasture, though uninhabitable ground (Psa 65:12).
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 21:19: Pro 21:19 With this verse, a doublet to Pro 21:9 (Pro 25:24), the collector makes a new addition; in Pro 21:29 he reaches a proverb which resembles the closing proverb of the preceding group, in its placing in contrast the רשׁע and ישׁר; - It is better to dwell in a waste land, Than a contentious wife and vexation.