Text -- Proverbs 13:3 (NET)

13:3 The one who guards his words guards his life, but whoever is talkative will come to ruin.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Pro 13:3

¹ tn Heb “mouth” (so KJV, NAB). The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for speech.

² tn The term “but” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

³ tn Heb “opens wide his lips.” This is an idiom meaning “to be talkative” (BDB 832 s.v. פָּשַׂק Qal). Cf. NIV “speaks rashly”; TEV “a careless talker”; CEV “talk too much.”

⁴ sn Tight control over what one says prevents trouble (e.g., Prov 10:10; 17:28; Jas 3:1-12; Sir 28:25). Amenemope advises to “sleep a night before speaking” (5:15; ANET 422, n. 10). The old Arab proverb is appropriate: “Take heed that your tongue does not cut your throat” (O. Zockler, Proverbs, 134).