Ecclesiastes 10:13-14

10:13 At the beginning his words ¹  are foolish

and at the end ²  his talk ³  is wicked madness, ⁴ 

10:14 yet a fool keeps on babbling. ⁵ 

No one knows what will happen;

who can tell him what will happen in the future? ⁶ 

[10:13]  ¹ tn Heb “the words of his mouth.”

[10:13]  ² sn The terms “beginning” and “end” form a merism, a figure of speech in which two opposites are contrasted to indicate totality (e.g., Deut 6:7; Ps 139:8; Eccl 3:2-8). The words of a fool are madness from “start to finish.”

[10:13]  ³ tn Heb “his mouth.”

[10:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “madness of evil.”

[10:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the fool multiplies words.” This line is best taken as the third line of a tricola encompassing 10:13-14a (NASB, NRSV, NJPS, Moffatt) rather than the first line of a tricola encompassing 10:14 (KJV, NEB, RSV, NAB, ASV, NIV). Several versions capture the sense of this line well: “a fool prates on and on” (Moffatt) and “Yet the fool talks and talks!” (NJPS).

[10:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “after him”; or “after he [dies].”