Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Better is the end of a speech than the beginning. Better is the patient man than the presumptuous.

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; better is a patient spirit than a proud spirit.

Better is the latter end of a thing than its beginning, Better is the patient of spirit, than the haughty of spirit.

The end of a thing is better than its start, and a gentle spirit is better than pride.

The end of a speech is better than the beginning. Patience is better than arrogance.

Better - Inasmuch as something certain is attained, man contemplates the end throughout an entire course of action, and does not rest upon the beginning.
Patient proud - literally, "Long," long-suffering"high," in the sense of impatient.

Better is the end - We can then judge of the whole, and especially if the matter relate to the conduct of Divine Providence. At the beginning we are often apt to make very rash conjectures, and often suppose that such and such things are against us; and that every thing is going wrong. Dr. Byrom gives good advice on such a subject: -
"With patient mind thy course of duty run:
God nothing does, nor suffers to be done,
But thou wouldst do thyself, couldst thou but see
The and of all events, as well as He."
I may add, in the words of our paraphrast: -
"Wait the result, nor ask with frantic rage
Why God permits such things. His ways, though now
Involved in clouds and darkness, will appear
All right, when from thine eyes the mist is cleared.
Till then, to learn submission to his will
More wisdom shows, than vainly thus to attempt
Exploring what thou canst not comprehend,
And God for wisest ends thinks fit to hide."
C.

Better [is] the (f) end of a thing than its beginning: [and] the patient in spirit [is] better than the proud in spirit.
(f) He notes their lightness who attempt a thing and suddenly leave it off again.

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof,.... If the thing is good, other ways the end of it is worse; as the end of wickedness and wicked men, whose beginning is sweet, but the end bitter; yea, are the ways of death, Proverbs 5:4; and so the end of carnal professors and apostates, who begin in the Spirit, and end in the flesh, Galatians 3:3; but the end of good things, and of good men, is better than the beginning; as the end of Job was, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual, Job 8:7; see Psalm 37:37;
and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit; patience is a fruit of the Spirit of God; and is of great use in the Christian's life, and especially in bearing afflictions, and tends to make men more humble, meek, and quiet; and such are highly esteemed of God; on them he looks, with them he dwells, and to them he gives more grace; when such who are proud, and elated with themselves, their riches or righteousness, are abominable to him; see Luke 16:15.

connected with Ecclesiastes 7:7. Let the "wise" wait for "the end," and the "oppressions" which now (in "the beginning") perplex their faith, will be found by God's working to be overruled to their good. "Tribulation worketh patience" (Romans 5:3), which is infinitely better than "the proud spirit" that prosperity might have generated in them, as it has in fools (Psalm 73:2-3, Psalm 73:12-14, Psalm 73:17-26; James 5:11).

There now follows a fourth, or, taking into account the mutilated one, a fifth proverb of that which is better: "Better the end of a thing than its beginning; better one who forbears than one who is haughty. Hasten thyself not in thy spirit to become angry: for anger lieth down in the bosom of fools." The clause 8a is first thus to be objectively understood as it stands. It is not without limitation true; for of a matter in itself evil, the very contrary is true, Proverbs 5:4; Proverbs 23:32. But if a thing is not in itself evil, the end of its progress, the reaching to its goal, the completion of its destination, is always better than its beginning, which leaves it uncertain whether it will lead to a prosperous issue. An example of this is Solon's saying to Croesus, that only he is to be pronounced happy whose good fortune it is to end his life well in the possession of his wealth (Herod. i. 32).
The proverb Ecclesiastes 7:8 will stand in some kind of connection with 8a, since what it says is further continued in Ecclesiastes 7:9. In itself, the frequently long and tedious development between the beginning and the end of a thing requires expectant patience. But if it is in the interest of a man to see the matter brought to an issue, an ארך אףּ will, notwithstanding, wait with self-control in all quietness for the end; while it lies in the nature of the רוּח גּבהּ, the haughty, to fret at the delay, and to seek to reach the end by violent means; for the haughty man thinks that everything must at once be subservient to his wish, and he measures what others should do by his own measureless self-complacency. We may with Hitzig translate: "Better is patience (ארך = ארך) than haughtiness" (גּבהּ, inf., as שׁפל, Ecclesiastes 12:4; Proverbs 16:19). But there exists no reason for this; גּבהּ is not to be held, as at Proverbs 16:5, and elsewhere generally, as the connecting form of גּבהּ, and so ארך for that of ארך; it amounts to the same thing whether the two properties (characters) or the persons possessing them are compared.

The end - The good or evil of things is better known by their end, than by their beginning. The patient - Who quietly waits for the issue of things. The proud - Which he puts instead of hasty or impatient, because pride is the chief cause of impatience.