Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Bible in Basic English

Proverbs 21:14

By a secret offering wrath is turned away, and the heat of angry feelings by money in the folds of the robe.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Bribery;   The Topic Concordance - Anger;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Dress;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Bosom ;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bosom;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Alms;   Eleazar Ii. (Lazar);   Gifts;   ḥanina B. Pappa;   Ẓedaḳah Box;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
A secret gift soothes anger,and a covert bribe, fierce rage.
Hebrew Names Version
A gift in secret pacifies anger; And a bribe in the cloak, strong wrath.
King James Version
A gift in secret pacifieth anger: and a reward in the bosom strong wrath.
English Standard Version
A gift in secret averts anger, and a concealed bribe, strong wrath.
New American Standard Bible
A gift in secret subdues anger, And a bribe in an inside pocket, strong wrath.
New Century Version
A secret gift will calm an angry person; a present given in secrecy will quiet great anger.
Amplified Bible
A gift in secret subdues anger, And a bribe [hidden] in the pocket, strong wrath.
World English Bible
A gift in secret pacifies anger; And a bribe in the cloak, strong wrath.
Geneva Bible (1587)
A gift in secret pacifieth anger, and a gift in the bosome great wrath.
Legacy Standard Bible
A gift in secret subdues anger,And a bribe in the bosom, strong wrath.
Berean Standard Bible
A gift in secret soothes anger, and a covert bribe pacifies great wrath.
Contemporary English Version
A secret bribe will save you from someone's fierce anger.
Complete Jewish Bible
A secret gift allays anger, and a bribe under the cloak the strongest fury.
Darby Translation
A gift in secret pacifieth anger; and a present in the bosom, vehement fury.
Easy-to-Read Version
If anyone is angry with you, give them a gift in private. A gift given in secret will calm even the strongest anger.
George Lamsa Translation
A gift in secret pacifies anger; but he who is sparing with his gifts stirs wrath.
Good News Translation
If someone is angry with you, a gift given secretly will calm him down.
Lexham English Bible
A gift in secret will avert anger, and a concealed bribe, strong wrath.
Literal Translation
A gift in secret subdues anger; yea, a bribe in the bosom quiets great fury.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
A preuy rewarde pacifieth displeasure, and a gifte in the bosome stilleth furiousnesse.
American Standard Version
A gift in secret pacifieth anger; And a present in the bosom, strong wrath.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
A gift in secret pacifieth anger, and a present in the bosom strong wrath.
King James Version (1611)
A gift in secret pacifieth anger; and a reward in the bosome, strong wrath.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
A priuie rewarde pacifieth displeasure: and a gyft in the bosome [stylleth] furiousnesse.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
A secret gift calms anger: but he that forbears to give stirs up strong wrath.
English Revised Version
A gift in secret pacifieth anger, and a present in the bosom strong wrath.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
A yift hid quenchith chidyngis; and a yift in bosum quenchith the moost indignacioun.
Update Bible Version
A gift in secret pacifies anger; And a present in the bosom, strong wrath.
Webster's Bible Translation
A gift in secret pacifieth anger: and a reward in the bosom, strong wrath.
New English Translation
A gift given in secret subdues anger, and a bribe given secretly subdues strong wrath.
New King James Version
A gift in secret pacifies anger,And a bribe behind the back, [fn] strong wrath.
New Living Translation
A secret gift calms anger; a bribe under the table pacifies fury.
New Life Bible
A gift in secret quiets anger. A gift from the heart quiets strong anger.
New Revised Standard
A gift in secret averts anger; and a concealed bribe in the bosom, strong wrath.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A gift in secret, quencheth anger, and, a present in the bosom, mighty wrath.
Douay-Rheims Bible
A secret present quencheth anger: and a gift in the bosom, the greatest wrath.
Revised Standard Version
A gift in secret averts anger; and a bribe in the bosom, strong wrath.
Young's Literal Translation
A gift in secret pacifieth anger, And a bribe in the bosom strong fury.
THE MESSAGE
A quietly given gift soothes an irritable person; a heartfelt present cools a hot temper.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
A gift in secret subdues anger, And a bribe in the bosom, strong wrath.

Contextual Overview

14 By a secret offering wrath is turned away, and the heat of angry feelings by money in the folds of the robe.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

gift: Proverbs 17:8, Proverbs 17:23, Proverbs 18:16, Proverbs 19:6, Genesis 32:20, Genesis 43:11, 1 Samuel 25:35

in secret: Matthew 6:3, Matthew 6:4

Reciprocal: Genesis 21:27 - took Genesis 32:13 - a present Judges 3:15 - sent a present 1 Samuel 25:18 - took two

Cross-References

Genesis 16:7
And an angel of the Lord came to her by a fountain of water in the waste land, by the fountain on the way to Shur.
Genesis 19:27
And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord:
Genesis 21:6
And Sarah said, God has given me cause for laughing, and everyone who has news of it will be laughing with me.
Genesis 21:7
And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would have a child at her breast? for see, I have given him a son now when he is old.
Genesis 21:23
Now, then, give me your oath, in the name of God, that you will not be false to me or to my sons after me, but that as I have been good to you, so you will be to me and to this land where you have been living.
Genesis 21:25
But Abraham made a protest to Abimelech because of a water-hole which Abimelech's servants had taken by force.
Genesis 21:31
So he gave that place the name Beer-sheba, because there the two of them had given their oaths.
Genesis 21:33
And Abraham, after planting a holy tree in Beer-sheba, gave worship to the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.
Genesis 22:3
And Abraham got up early in the morning, and made ready his ass, and took with him two of his young men and Isaac, his son, and after the wood for the burned offering had been cut, he went on his way to the place of which God had given him word.
Genesis 22:19
Then Abraham went back to his young men and they went together to Beer-sheba, the place where Abraham was living.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A gift in secret pacifieth anger,.... Appeases an angry man; humbles and "brings [his anger] down" y, as Aben Ezra and Gersom observe the word signifies; which before rose very high, and showed itself in big words and disdainful looks, as proud wrath does; or extinguishes it, as the Targum and Vulgate Latin version render it, and very fitly. Anger is a fire in the breast; and a restraining or causing it to cease is properly expressed by an extinguishing of it: this a gift or present does, as it did in Esau from Jacob, in David from Abigail; but then it must be secretly given, otherwise it may more provoke; since it may show vanity in the giver, and covetousness in the receiver; and the former may have more honour than the latter. Some understand this of a gift for a bribe to a judge, to abate the severity of the sentence; and others of alms deeds to the poor, to pacify the anger of God z: Jarchi interprets it of alms; and the Jews write this sentence upon the poor's box, understanding it in this sense; but the first sense is best;

and a reward in the bosom strong wrath: the same thing in different words; the meaning is, that a reward or gift, secretly conveyed into the bosom of an angry man, pacifies his wrath, when at the greatest height. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, understand it in a quite different sense, of a gift retained in the bosom, and not given, and render it thus, "he that spareth gifts stirreth up strong wrath".

y יכפה "deprimit", Piscator; so some in Mercerus; "subigit", Cocceius; "pensat nasum", Schultens. z "Munera (crede mihi) placant hominesque deosque", Ovid. de Arte Amandi, l. 3.


 
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