Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, April 24th, 2025
Thursday in Easter Week
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Proverbs 21:9

It is better to live in a small corner on the roof than to share the house with a woman who is always arguing.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Family;   House;   Marriage;   Wife;   Women;   Thompson Chain Reference - Contentious Woman;   Evil;   Family;   Housetops;   Strife;   Unity-Strife;   Women;   The Topic Concordance - Contention;   Women;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Easton Bible Dictionary - House;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Marriage;   Proverbs, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Fellowship;   Proverbs, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - 41 Common Unclean Defiled Profane;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Corner;   Dwelling;   Smith Bible Dictionary - House;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Brawler;   Relationships, Family;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Better to live on the corner of a roofthan to share a house with a nagging wife.
Hebrew Names Version
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, Than to share a house with a contentious woman.
King James Version
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.
English Standard Version
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
New American Standard Bible
It is better to live on a corner of a roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.
New Century Version
It is better to live in a corner on the roof than inside the house with a quarreling wife.
Amplified Bible
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop [on the flat roof, exposed to the weather] Than in a house shared with a quarrelsome (contentious) woman.
World English Bible
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, Than to share a house with a contentious woman.
Geneva Bible (1587)
It is better to dwell in a corner of the house top, then with a contentious woman in a wide house.
Legacy Standard Bible
It is better to live in a corner of a roofThan in a house shared with a contentious woman.
Berean Standard Bible
Better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
Contemporary English Version
It's better to stay outside on the roof of your house than to live inside with a nagging wife.
Complete Jewish Bible
It is better to live on a corner of the roof than to share the house with a nagging wife.
Darby Translation
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a contentious woman, and a house in common.
George Lamsa Translation
It is better to dwell alone in a corner of the housetop than to live with a quarrelsome woman in a large house.
Good News Translation
Better to live on the roof than share the house with a nagging wife.
Lexham English Bible
Better to dwell on the corner of a roof than to share a house with a woman of contention.
Literal Translation
It is better to dwell on a corner of a housetop, than with a contentious woman, and to share a house.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
It is better to dwell in a corner vnder ye house toppe, then with a braulinge woman in a wyde house.
American Standard Version
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, Than with a contentious woman in a wide house.
Bible in Basic English
It is better to be living in an angle of the house-top, than with a bitter-tongued woman in a wide house.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than in a house in common with a contentious woman.
King James Version (1611)
It is better to dwell in a corner of the house top; then with a brawling woman in a wide house.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
It is better to dwel in a corner on the house toppe, then with a brawling woman in a wide house.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
It is better to dwell in a corner on the house-top, than in plastered rooms with unrighteousness, and in an open house.
English Revised Version
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a contentious woman in a wide house.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
It is betere to sitte in the corner of an hous with oute roof, than with a womman ful of chydyng, and in a comyn hous.
Update Bible Version
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, Than with a contentious woman in a wide house.
Webster's Bible Translation
[It is] better to dwell in a corner of the house-top, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.
New English Translation
It is better to live on a corner of the housetop than in a house in company with a quarrelsome wife.
New King James Version
Better to dwell in a corner of a housetop, Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.
New Living Translation
It's better to live alone in the corner of an attic than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home.
New Life Bible
It is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with an arguing woman.
New Revised Standard
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a contentious wife.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Better to dwell on the corner of the roof, than a quarrelsome wife, and a house in common.
Douay-Rheims Bible
It is better to sit in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman, and in a common house.
Revised Standard Version
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a contentious woman.
Young's Literal Translation
Better to sit on a corner of the roof, Than [with] a woman of contentions and a house of company.
THE MESSAGE
Better to live alone in a tumbledown shack than share a mansion with a nagging spouse.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
It is better to live in a corner of a roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

Contextual Overview

9 It is better to live in a small corner on the roof than to share the house with a woman who is always arguing.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

better: Proverbs 21:19, Proverbs 12:4, Proverbs 19:13, Proverbs 25:24, Proverbs 27:15, Proverbs 27:16

brawling woman in a wide house: Heb. woman of contentions in a house of society, Proverbs 15:17, Proverbs 17:1

Reciprocal: Proverbs 9:13 - General Proverbs 14:1 - the foolish Proverbs 30:23 - an odious Matthew 19:10 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 16:1
Sarai was Abram's wife, but she did not have any children. She had an Egyptian slave named Hagar.
Genesis 17:20
"You mentioned Ishmael, and I heard you. I will bless him, and he will have many children. He will be the father of twelve great leaders. His family will become a great nation.
Genesis 21:1
The Lord came back to visit Sarah as he said he would, and he kept his promise to her.
Genesis 21:3
Abraham named his son Isaac.
Genesis 21:5
Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born.
Genesis 21:6
Sarah said, "God has made me happy, and everyone who hears about this will be happy with me.
Genesis 21:13
But I will also bless the son of your slave woman. He is your son, so I will make a great nation from his family also."
Genesis 21:14
Early the next morning Abraham took some food and water and gave them to Hagar. She carried them and left with her boy. She left that place and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.
Genesis 21:23
So make a promise to me here before God. Promise that you will be fair with me and with my children. Promise that you will be kind to me and this country where you have lived. Promise that you will be as kind to me as I have been to you."
Genesis 21:24
And Abraham said, "I promise to treat you the same way you have treated me."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[It is] better to dwell in a corner of the housetop,.... The roofs of houses in Judea were that, encompassed with battlements, whither persons might retire for solitude, and sit in safety: and it is better to be in a corner of such a roof alone, and be exposed to scorching heat, to blustering winds, to thunder storms and showers of rain,

than with a brawling woman in a wide house; large and spacious, full of rooms, fit for a numerous family: or, "an house of society" u; where many families might dwell and live sociably with each other; or a house where a man, his wife and family, might dwell together, and have communion with each other; it is opposed to the corner of the housetop, and the solitariness of it; as the scolding of the brawling woman, or "a woman of contentions" w, who is always noisy and quarrelsome, her violent passions, her storming language, and thundering voice, are to the inclemencies of the heavens, to which a man on the housetop is exposed; and yet these are more eligible than the other; see

Proverbs 21:19.

u ובית חבר "domo societatis", Montanus, Vatablus, Baynus, Mercerus, Michaelis, "et domus societatis", Schultens. w מאשת מדונים "prae muliere contentionum", Montanus, Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A wide house - literally, “a house of companionship,” i. e., a house shared with her. The flat roof of an Eastern house was often used for retirement by day, or in summer for sleep by night. The corner of such a roof was exposed to all changes of weather, and the point of the proverb lies in the thought that all winds and storms which a man might meet with there are more endurable than the tempest within.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 21:9. In a corner of the housetop — A shed raised on the flat roof: - a wide house; בית חבר beith chaber, "a house of fellowship;" what we should call a lodging-house, or a house occupied by several families. This was usual in the East, as well as in the West. Some think a house of festivity is meant: hence my old MS. Bible has, the hous and feste.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile