Short Sayings with Long Consequences

The heading opens the main collection, 10:1 to 22:16, which contains 375 verses. The name Solomon, added up by the numerical values of its Hebrew letters, also comes to 375. The father is glad and the mother grieves, the two halves splitting one family’s experience between them.

“Treasures of wickedness” are ill-gotten gains. The second half returns word for word in 11:4. Later Jewish usage took tsedaqah, righteousness, to mean almsgiving, and Tobit 12:9 says “alms doth deliver from death”, reading this line in that sense.

“Famish” is to go hungry. “Substance” is hawwat, craving or desire: the LORD thrusts away what the wicked hunger for. Psalm 37:25 makes the first half into a memory: “yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

“Slack” is remiyyah, a word that means both slackness and deceit, used of a “deceitful tongue” in Psalm 120:2. A loose hand and a lying hand are close kin. “Diligent” is charutsim, sharp or keen, the same word as the poetic “fine gold” of 3:14.

“Sleepeth” is nirdam, to lie in heavy sleep, the verb of Jonah “fast asleep” in the ship’s hold (Jonah 1:5). Summer and harvest are the qayits and qatsir of the ant in 6:8. The son is wise or shameful by the calendar: the harvest does not wait.

The second half is repeated exactly in verse 11. The Hebrew can be read either way round: violence covers the mouth of the wicked, as a covering or a gag, or the mouth of the wicked covers violence, hiding what it plans. The head receives blessing; the mouth holds its secret.

Jewish custom, after naming someone who has died, adds “of blessed memory”, zikhrono livrakhah, taken from the first half of this verse. “Shall rot” is yirqav, to decay like wood; Isaiah 40:20 speaks of choosing “a tree that will not rot”. A name decays like timber.

“A prating fool” is literally “a fool of lips”, evil sefatayim, whose folly is in his talk. “Fall” is yillavet, to be thrown down, a verb found only here, in verse 10 and in Hosea 4:14. The wise heart takes in; the lips of the fool keep giving out.

“Surely” is betach, securely, the safe dwelling of 1:33. “Perverteth” is me’aqqesh, makes crooked, from iqqesh (2:15). “Shall be known” means found out, exposed; Moses tells the tribes, “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

The winking eye is the gesture of the worthless man in 6:13. The second half repeats verse 8 exactly, possibly copied by a scribe. The Greek has a different line: “but he that reproves boldly makes peace”, which gives a real contrast to the winker’s sly signal.

“Well of life” is meqor chayyim, fountain of life, the phrase of Psalm 36:9, “with thee is the fountain of life”. Proverbs uses it again of the teaching of the wise (13:14), the fear of the LORD (14:27) and understanding (16:22). Here it is a person’s mouth.

1 Peter 4:8 quotes the second half, “charity shall cover the multitude of sins”. “Covereth” is kasah, the verb of Psalm 32:1, “whose sin is covered”. “Stirreth up” is te’orer, to rouse or wake, as one wakes a sleeper: hatred keeps waking quarrels that would otherwise lie still.

“A rod is for the back” returns in 19:29 and 26:3, “a rod for the fool’s back”. The two halves describe two ways of learning. One man’s wisdom is found in what his lips say; the other, chasar lev, lacking sense, learns only through the stick.

“Lay up” is tsafan, the treasuring verb of 2:1 and 7:1, knowledge stored away and brought out at the right time. “Near destruction” is mechittah qerovah, ruin close at hand. The fool’s mouth is never more than a sentence away from disaster.

18:11 repeats the first half and adds a sting: “and as an high wall in his own conceit”. “Destruction” is mechittah, the same word as in verse 14: the fool’s mouth and the poor man’s poverty both leave a person exposed to ruin.

“Labour” is pe’ullah, wages, the word of Leviticus 19:13, “the wages of him that is hired”. “Fruit” is tevu’ah, income or yield. The Hebrew sets two kinds of earnings side by side; Paul makes the same pairing in Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death”.

The way of life reappears from 6:23, “reproofs of instruction are the way of life”. “Keepeth” is shomer, guards. “Refuseth” is azav, forsakes, the verb of the woman who forsook her companion in 2:17. Guarding and forsaking are the two ways to treat instruction.

“Slander” is dibbah, an evil report, the word for the spies’ report of the land (Numbers 13:32) and the report Joseph brought of his brothers (Genesis 37:2). Two different men are described, one hiding hate, one spreading it, and a single verdict covers both.

Ecclesiastes 5:3 agrees: “a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.” “Sin” here is pesha, transgression, a deliberate breach. “Refraineth” is chosech, holds back, the verb for Abraham, who “hast not withheld thy son” (Genesis 22:12).

“Choice silver” is kesef nivchar, the picked silver of 8:19. “Little worth” is kim’at, a little, the word of 5:14. The comparison is lopsided on purpose: the righteous man’s tongue alone is silver, while the wicked man’s heart, his very centre, is worth little.

“Feed” is yir’u, to shepherd or pasture, the verb of Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my shepherd”. The lips of the righteous are shepherds to many. “Want of wisdom” is chasar lev, lack of heart: fools starve for want of what the righteous are giving away.

The second half can be read two ways: the LORD adds no sorrow with his blessing, or human toil adds nothing to it. “Sorrow” is etsev, the pain and toil of Genesis 3:16–17. Psalm 127:2 makes the second point: “It is vain for you to rise up early.”

“Sport” is sechoq, laughter or play, the word used of Wisdom playing before God in 8:30. The fool plays at mischief as Wisdom played at creation. “Mischief” is zimmah, a planned wickedness, often sexual (Leviticus 18:17). For the man of understanding, wisdom is his play.

“Fear” is megorah, the thing dreaded, as Job says: “the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me” (Job 3:25). The second half echoes Psalm 37:4, “he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”. Each gets what he was looking at.

“Whirlwind” is sufah, the storm of 1:27. “Everlasting foundation” is yesod olam, a foundation that stays. Jesus’ closing parable in Matthew 7:24–27 sets the same two builders in the same storm, one house standing on rock, the other falling.

Vinegar, chomets, is soured wine, and Jeremiah 31:29 speaks of teeth “set on edge” by sour grapes. Smoke in the eyes came from fires in houses without chimneys. 25:13 has the opposite: “As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger.”

“Prolongeth days” is literally “adds days”. Psalm 55:23 says of the other kind, “bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.” The line states the general pattern; Ecclesiastes 7:15 notes the exceptions, a just man perishing and a wicked man living long.

“Hope” is tochelet, patient expectation, from the yachal of Psalm 147:11. “Expectation” is tiqvah, a word that also means a cord, the scarlet cord Rahab tied in her window (Joshua 2:18). The wicked hold a hope-rope that will snap. 11:7 repeats the thought.

The Hebrew reads “the way of the LORD is a stronghold to integrity”: one and the same road is refuge to the upright and ruin to evildoers. Hosea 14:9 closes his book the same way: “the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.”

“Never be removed” is bal yimmot, shall not be moved, the phrase of Psalm 15:5, “He that doeth these things shall never be moved”. The wicked not inhabiting the land is the promise of 2:21–22 told in brief.

“Bringeth forth” is yanuv, to bud or bear fruit, the verb of Psalm 92:14, “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.” “Cut out” is tikkaret, cut off, like a barren branch. The mouth is a tree: one sprouts wisdom, the other tongue is pruned away.

“Acceptable” is ratson, favour or goodwill, the word of Psalm 145:16 and 19. Righteous lips know what will be welcome. “Frowardness” is tahpukot, the upside down talk of 2:12, closing the chapter with the same word for twisted speech that opened the warnings.