John Gill Commentary Proverbs 19:13

"A foolish son is the calamity of his father; And the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping." — Proverbs 19:13 (ASV)

A foolish son [is] the calamity of his father Or, "the calamities of his father" ^F17 ; he brings them to him. A very great affliction he is, and which has many distresses and sorrows in it; as loss of reputation and credit in his family, which is sunk by his behaviour, instead of being supported and increased; loss of substance, through extravagance and riotous living, and the ruin of his soul and body by his wicked practices; see (Proverbs 10:1) ;

and the contentions of a wife [are] a continual dropping or like the dropping of rain, in a rainy day, into a house out of repair, and which is very uncomfortable to the inhabitants of it; see (Proverbs 27:15) . Such are the contentions of a peevish, ill-natured, and brawling wife, who is always scolding; and which is a continual vexation to a man, and renders him very uneasy in life: such a continual dropping was Xantippe to Socrates, who teased him night and day with her brawls and contentions ^F18 . A great unhappiness each of these must be!

---

FOOTNOTES:

• F17: (twwh) "calamitates", Vatablus; "aerumnae", Piscator, Michaelis; "causa aerumnarum", Junius & Tremellius.
• F18: A. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 1. c. 17.