The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor,
but the lips of a fool consume him.
The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness,
and the end of his talk is evil madness.
A fool multiplies words,
though no man knows what is to be,
and who can tell him what will be after him?
The toil of a fool wearies him,
for he does not know the way to the city.
The words we speak reveal the heart we have. When I wise man speaks people hear the wisdom and that wins favor from the hearers. But when a fool speaks we see deep into that heart and mind and it reveals little of worth. The heart of the fool brings forth from his mouth foolishness and, eventually, madness. You only have to be around a person for a short time to know the folly of their heart. It is revealed in the chatter of their lips. The fool does not know when to stop talking. They multiply their words. The fool has the theory that the more they speak the more they make sense. Yet, the opposite is true. The more the fool talks the more we see their folly. We don’t know the end of the fool but only that it will not end well. All of Solomon’s wisdom literature is a contrast between the wise and the fool. He tells us consistently, whereas the wise opens their mouth and we hear that wisdom, the fool continues to wax eloquently and yet act more and more foolishly. Their lips simply give us forewarning of their demise.
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