John Gill Commentary Proverbs 27:4

"Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; But who is able to stand before jealousy?" — Proverbs 27:4 (ASV)

Wrath [is] cruel, and anger [is] outrageous
Or "an inundation" ^F24 ; it is like the breaking in of the sea, or a flood of mighty waters, which know no bounds, and there is no stopping them: so cruel and outrageous were the wrath and anger of Simeon and Levi, in destroying the Shechemites; of Pharaoh, in making the Israelites to serve with hard bondage, and ordering their male children to be killed and drowned; and of Herod, in murdering the infants in and about Bethlehem;

but who [is] able to stand before envy ?
which is secret in a man's heart, and privately contrives and works the ruin of another, and against which there no guarding. All mankind in Adam fell before the envy of Satan; for it was through the envy of the devil that sin and death came into the world, in the Apocrypha:``Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.''

An envious man is worse than an angry and wrathful man; his wrath and anger may be soon over, or there may be ways and means of appeasing him; but envy continues and abides, and works insensibly. (James 3:14James 3:16) .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F24: (Pjv) "inundatio", Michaelis, so Montanus, Vatablus, Tigurine version, "exundatio", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "inundatio salcans", Schultens.