纷争的起头如水放开，所以，在争闹之先必当止息争竞。

纷争掀起，如同缺口的水；因此，争端尚未爆发就当制止。

纷争掀起，如同缺口的水；因此，争端尚未爆发就当制止。

争端爆发如洪水决堤，当在爆发前将其制止。

纷争的开始，如同决堤的水；所以在争执发生以前，就要制止。

纷争的开始，就如放开的水；卷入争执之前，当放弃争辩。

紛爭的起頭如水放開，所以，在爭鬧之先必當止息爭競。

紛爭掀起，如同缺口的水；因此，爭端尚未爆發就當制止。

紛爭掀起，如同缺口的水；因此，爭端尚未爆發就當制止。

爭端爆發如洪水決堤，當在爆發前將其制止。

紛爭的開始，如同決堤的水；所以在爭執發生以前，就要制止。

紛爭之起點如放水；故爭吵尚未暴發，先要放棄。

紛爭的開始，就如放開的水；捲入爭執之前，當放棄爭辯。

釁端之起、如水潰決、宜先弭之、以免爭鬥、

釁隙之開、若江河之潰、故爭競將起、必弭之。

爭端之起、如水之破隙、故爭競未發之先、當止之、

Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

Starting to argue is like making a crack in a dam. So drop the matter before a fight breaks out.

The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.

Starting a quarrel is like opening a floodgate, so stop before a dispute breaks out.

To start a conflict is to release a flood; stop the dispute before it breaks out.

The beginning of strife is like letting out water, So abandon the quarrel before it breaks out.

The beginning of strife is like releasing water; Therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts.

The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: Therefore leave off contention, before there is quarrelling.

To start a conflict is to release a flood; stop the dispute before it breaks out.

The beginning of strife[ is as] when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.

Starting a quarrel is like letting out water; stop it before strife breaks out!

The beginning of strife is like breaching a dam, therefore stop contention before quarreling breaks out.

do not bring hastily to court, for what will you do in the end if your neighbor puts you to shame? (niv)

It is to one’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel. (niv)

and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, (niv)

But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.Such“ wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. (niv)

The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools. (niv)

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. (niv)

After Amaziah king of Judah consulted his advisers, he sent this challenge to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel:“ Come, let us face each other in battle.”But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah:“ A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon,‘ Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle underfoot.You say to yourself that you have defeated Edom, and now you are arrogant and proud. But stay at home! Why ask for trouble and cause your own downfall and that of Judah also?”Amaziah, however, would not listen, for God so worked that he might deliver them into the hands of Jehoash, because they sought the gods of Edom.So Jehoash king of Israel attacked. He and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other at Beth Shemesh in Judah.Judah was routed by Israel, and every man fled to his home.Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh. Then Jehoash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate— a section about four hundred cubits long.He took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the temple of God that had been in the care of Obed-Edom, together with the palace treasures and the hostages, and returned to Samaria. (niv)

Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick- tempered displays folly. (niv)

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (niv)

An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins. (niv)

As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife. (niv)

The Ephraimite forces were called out, and they crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah,“ Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We’re going to burn down your house over your head.”Jephthah answered,“ I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn’t save me out of their hands.When I saw that you wouldn’t help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?”Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said,“ You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh.”The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said,“ Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him,“ Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied,“ No,”they said,“ All right, say‘ Shibboleth.’” If he said,“ Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time. (niv)

Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. (niv)

Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin; whoever builds a high gate invites destruction. (niv)

he followed the advice of the young men and said,“ My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:“ What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house, David!” So all the Israelites went home. (niv)

Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon,“ Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?” And they challenged him vigorously.But he answered them,“ What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer?God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided. (niv)

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. (niv)

Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice. (niv)

Soon all the men of Israel were coming to the king and saying to him,“ Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, steal the king away and bring him and his household across the Jordan, together with all his men?”All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel,“ We did this because the king is closely related to us. Why are you angry about it? Have we eaten any of the king’s provisions? Have we taken anything for ourselves?”Then the men of Israel answered the men of Judah,“ We have ten shares in the king; so we have a greater claim on David than you have. Why then do you treat us with contempt? Weren’t we the first to speak of bringing back our king?” But the men of Judah pressed their claims even more forcefully than the men of Israel.Now a troublemaker named Sheba son of Bikri, a Benjamite, happened to be there. He sounded the trumpet and shouted,“ We have no share in David, no part in Jesse’s son! Every man to his tent, Israel!”So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bikri. But the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem.When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace and put them in a house under guard. He provided for them but had no sexual relations with them. They were kept in confinement till the day of their death, living as widows.Then the king said to Amasa,“ Summon the men of Judah to come to me within three days, and be here yourself.”But when Amasa went to summon Judah, he took longer than the time the king had set for him.David said to Abishai,“ Now Sheba son of Bikri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your master’s men and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and escape from us.”So Joab’s men and the Kerethites and Pelethites and all the mighty warriors went out under the command of Abishai. They marched out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bikri.While they were at the great rock in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was wearing his military tunic, and strapped over it at his waist was a belt with a dagger in its sheath. As he stepped forward, it dropped out of its sheath.Joab said to Amasa,“ How are you, my brother?” Then Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.Amasa was not on his guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand, and Joab plunged it into his belly, and his intestines spilled out on the ground. Without being stabbed again, Amasa died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bikri.One of Joab’s men stood beside Amasa and said,“ Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!”Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road, and the man saw that all the troops came to a halt there. When he realized that everyone who came up to Amasa stopped, he dragged him from the road into a field and threw a garment over him.After Amasa had been removed from the road, everyone went on with Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bikri.Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel Beth Maakah and through the entire region of the Bikrites, who gathered together and followed him.All the troops with Joab came and besieged Sheba in Abel Beth Maakah. They built a siege ramp up to the city, and it stood against the outer fortifications. While they were battering the wall to bring it down,a wise woman called from the city,“ Listen! Listen! Tell Joab to come here so I can speak to him.”He went toward her, and she asked,“ Are you Joab?”“ I am,” he answered. She said,“ Listen to what your servant has to say.”“ I’m listening,” he said.She continued,“ Long ago they used to say,‘ Get your answer at Abel,’ and that settled it.We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why do you want to swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”“ Far be it from me!” Joab replied,“ Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy!That is not the case. A man named Sheba son of Bikri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Hand over this one man, and I’ll withdraw from the city.” The woman said to Joab,“ His head will be thrown to you from the wall.”Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bikri and threw it to Joab. So he sounded the trumpet, and his men dispersed from the city, each returning to his home. And Joab went back to the king in Jerusalem. (niv)

So Abram said to Lot,“ Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives.Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.” (niv)

A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense. (niv)

In one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Judah— because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors. (niv)

This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad.When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said,“ The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”The apostles and elders met to consider this question.After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them:“ Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.When they finished, James spoke up.“ Brothers,” he said,“ listen to me.Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:“‘ After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’—things known from long ago.“ It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” (niv)

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said,“ It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to themand will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. (niv)

Abijah and his troops inflicted heavy losses on them, so that there were five hundred thousand casualties among Israel’s able men. (niv)

Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self- control than one who takes a city. (niv)

Then Abner said to Joab,“ Let’s have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us.”“ All right, let them do it,” Joab said.So they stood up and were counted off— twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David.Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his dagger into his opponent’s side, and they fell down together. So that place in Gibeon was called Helkath Hazzurim.The battle that day was very fierce, and Abner and the Israelites were defeated by David’s men. (niv)