Proverbs Chapter 21 verse 9 Holy Bible
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, Than with a contentious woman in a wide house.
read chapter 21 in ASV
It is better to be living in an angle of the house-top, than with a bitter-tongued woman in a wide house.
read chapter 21 in BBE
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a contentious woman, and a house in common.
read chapter 21 in DARBY
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.
read chapter 21 in KJV
read chapter 21 in WBT
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, Than to share a house with a contentious woman.
read chapter 21 in WEB
Better to sit on a corner of the roof, Than `with' a woman of contentions and a house of company.
read chapter 21 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 9. - It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop. One is to think of the flat roof of an Eastern house, which was used as an apartment for many purposes: e,g. for sleeping and conference (1 Samuel 9:25, 26), for exercise (2 Samuel 11:2), for domestic matters (Joshua 2:6), for retirement and prayer (Psalm 102:7; Acts 10:9). This, though exposed to the inclemency of the weather, would be not an uncomfortable situation during a great part of the year. But the proverb implies a position abnormally inconvenient as an alternative preferable to a residence inside. Hence, perhaps, it is advisable to render, with Delitzsch, "Better to sit on the pinhole of a house roof." Septuagint, "It is better to dwell in a corner of a place open to the sky (ὑπαίθρου)." Than with a brawling (contentious) woman in a wide house; literally, a house of society; i.e. a house in common (comp. ver. 19 and Proverbs 25:24). A solitary corner, replete with inconveniences, is to be preferred to house shared with woman, wife or other female relation, of a quarrelsome and vexatious temper. The LXX. puts the matter forcibly, "than in cieled rooms with unrighteousness and in a common house." So the Latin proverb, "Non quam late, sed quam laete habites, refert." The Scotch have a proverb to the same effect: "A house wi' a reek and a wife wi' a reerd (scold) will sune mak' a man run to the door." "I had rather dwell," says the Son of Sirach (Ecclus. 25:16), "with a lion and a dragon, than to keep house with a wicked woman."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(9) It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop.--Though there exposed to all the storms of heaven. The flat tops of houses were, in the East, used for exercise (2Samuel 11:2), sleeping, (1Samuel 9:26), devotion (Acts 10:9), and various domestic purposes (Joshua 2:6).