Solomon, as conservator of the public peace, here tells us, 1. How the
peace may be kept, that we may know how in our places to keep it; it is
by soft words. If wrath be risen like a threatening cloud, pregnant
with storms and thunder, a soft answer will disperse it and turn it
away. When men are provoked, speak gently to them, and give them good
words, and they will be pacified, as the Ephraimites were by Gideon's
mildness (Judg. viii. 1-3); whereas, upon a like occasion, by
Jephthah's roughness, they were exasperated, and the consequences were
bad, Judg. xii. 1-3. Reason will be better spoken, and a righteous
cause better pleaded, with meekness then with passion; hard arguments
do best with soft words. 2. How the peace will be broken, that we, for
our parts, may do nothing towards the breaking of it. Nothing stirs up
anger, and sows discord, like grievous words, calling foul names, as
Raca, and Thou fool, upbraiding men with their infirmities and
infelicities, their extraction or education, or any thing that lessens
them and makes them mean; scornful spiteful reflections, by which men
affect to show their wit and malice, stir up the anger of others, which
does but increase and inflame their own anger. Rather than lose a jest
some will lose a friend and make an enemy.