Proverbs 18:19 Commentary and Bible Study

What does that mean? Well, a person who is your brother and you have obligations to each other as Christian people, and you are deeply offended by some wrong and you have been repudiated by the other party in some way. That offended brother is harder to bring back than a strong city to be brought down. Yes, a strong defended city – you can lay siege to it, and in ancient times most such sieges ended in about three months and the problem was over. In the worst case in the Bible a siege holds out for three years. But a dispute with an offended brother can last ten years or twenty years. It is harder to win somebody who has known love and affection and is wronged and hurt than it is to lay siege to a strong city. So the moral of the proverb is, don’t offend in the first place, because the consequences are very hard to repair. We never, never, say cruel or wounding things or act in a cruel or wounding way within the fellowship of God’s people. It is sinful anyway, but the consequences are painful. So it is a solemn warning. Never insult, never ignore, never punish somebody with an act of rejection, because hurt is so hard to repair.