It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.

It is better to dwell in a wilderness, than with a quarrelsome and passionate woman.

It is better to dwell in a desert land. than with a contentious and irritable woman.

Better to dwell in a wilderness land, Than with a woman of contentions and anger.

It is better to be living in a waste land, than with a bitter-tongued and angry woman.

It is better to live in a deserted land, than with a quarrelsome and emotional woman.

It is better to dwell in the wilderness,.... Where persons live without shelter, and are not only exposed to storms and tempests, but to beasts of prey; where is want of the necessaries of life, and no society; where no "speech" is, as the word (e) for wilderness may signify; yet it is better to dwell in such a place, where no human voice is heard,
than with a contentious and an angry woman; that is always brawling and scolding, ever in a quarrelsome and angry disposition, and provoking to anger all about her; See Gill on Proverbs 21:9. In a mystical sense, it is better to be with the church in the wilderness, Revelation 12:14; than with the furious, bloodthirsty, and persecuting church of Rome, in all its worldly glory and splendour.
(e) "a" "loqui".

Unbridled passions spoil the comfort of all relations.

(Compare Proverbs 21:9).
wilderness--pasture, though uninhabitable ground (Psalm 65:12).

With this verse, a doublet to Proverbs 21:9 (Proverbs 25:24), the collector makes a new addition; in Proverbs 21:29 he reaches a proverb which resembles the closing proverb of the preceding group, in its placing in contrast the רשׁע and ישׁר; -
It is better to dwell in a waste land,
Than a contentious wife and vexation.
The corner of the roof, Hitzig remarks, has been made use of, and the author must look further out for a lonely seat. But this is as piquant as it is devoid of thought; for have both proverbs the same author, and if so, were they coined at the same time? Here also it is unnecessary to regard מאשׁת as an abbreviation for משּׁבת עם אשׁת. Hitzig supplies שׁכן, by which אשׁת, as the accus.-obj., is governed; but it is not to be supplied, for the proverb places as opposite to one another dwelling in a waste land (read שׁבת בּארץ־מדבּר, with Codd. and correct Ed.) and a contentious wife (Chethı̂b, מדונים, Kerı̂, מדינים) and vexation, and says the former is better than the latter. For וכעס [and vexation] is not, as translated by the ancients, and generally received, a second governed genitive to אשׁת, but dependent on מן, follows "contentious woman" (cf. 9b): better that than a quarrelsome wife, and at the same time vexation.