This is the first of two “better . . . than” sayings in chapter 21, which are quite similar; the other is verse 19. Each of these has the same theme: the quarrelsome wife. This verse is repeated at 25.24.

“It is better to live in a corner of the housetop”: The term “live” suggests staying all the time or for a long time, not just for a while. The rendering “in . . . the housetop” gives the wrong meaning, as the Hebrew preposition has the sense of “on” or “upon.” The position referred to here is definitely outside the house, “outside on the roof” (Contemporary English Version). “Housetop” renders the normal Hebrew word for the roof of a house. Since houses in Old Testament Israel mostly had flat roofs, we can imagine “a corner of the housetop” being at or near the corner of the rectangular flat roof. The precise position is not the point of the saying, of course; it is somewhere that may not be very comfortable but is away from the situation of unbearable matrimonial conflict. In places where flat roofs are unknown, translators have two possible courses of action. In some languages the element of humor in imagining the husband perched on a sloping roof actually brings out the point of the saying very well. Otherwise a more general rendering, such as “outside” or “out in the open,” may be satisfactory. In some cultures it may be appropriate to refer to a small building used for animals or for storing crops.

“Than in a house shared with a contentious woman”: The Hebrew of this line is literally “than a woman of contention and a house of company.” The sense of the last part of this is clearly “sharing a house with. . ..” In Hebrew, as in many other languages, “woman” can mean either “woman” or “wife”; in this context “wife” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and others) seems more appropriate in English. A “contentious” person (the term is used of both men and women in Proverbs) is someone who causes strife or is “quarrelsome” (New International Version, Scott). In relation to a wife, the natural expression in modern English is “a nagging wife” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Revised English Bible), and other languages may have their own similar expressions. Where there is no single term like “quarrelsome,” a longer expression may be required; for example, “. . . this beats staying inside the house with a wife who talks crossly and talks too much.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .