Proverbs 17:19

The one who loves a quarrel loves transgression; ¹  whoever builds his gate high seeks destruction. ² 

1Sa 25:36-38; 2Sa 15:1; 1Ki 1:5; Pr 16:18; Pr 17:14; Pr 18:12; Pr 24:27; Pr 29:9,22; Jer 22:13-15; Da 4:20,21; 2Co 12:20; Jas 1:20; Jas 3:14-16

¹ tn Heb “the one who loves transgression the one who loves a quarrel.” There is some ambiguity in the first line. The meaning would not differ greatly if either were taken as the subject; but the parallelism suggests that the proverb is about a quarrelsome and arrogant person who loves sin and invites destruction.

² tn Some have taken this second line literally and interpreted it to mean he has built a pretentious house. Probably it is meant to be figurative: The gate is the mouth (the figure would be hypocatastasis) and so to make it high is to say lofty things – he brags too much (e.g., 1 Sam 2:3; Prov 18:12; 29:23); cf. NCV, TEV, NLT. C. H. Toy (Proverbs [ICC], 348) wishes to emend פִּתְחוֹ (pitkho, “his gate”) to פִּיו (piv, “his mouth”), but that is unnecessary since the idea can be obtained by interpretation.