Proverbs 10:19

10:19 When words abound, transgression is inevitable, ¹ 

but the one who restrains ²  his words ³  is wise.

Proverbs 13:16

13:16 Every shrewd ⁴  person acts with knowledge,

but a fool displays ⁵  his folly.

Proverbs 29:11

29:11 A fool lets fly with all his temper, ⁶ 

but a wise person keeps it back. ⁷ 

Proverbs 29:20

29:20 Do you see someone ⁸  who is hasty in his words? ⁹ 

There is more hope for a fool than for him. ¹⁰ 

Ecclesiastes 10:12-14

Words and Works of Wise Men and Fools

10:12 The words of a wise person ¹¹  win him ¹²  favor, ¹³ 

but the words ¹⁴  of a fool are self-destructive. ¹⁵ 

10:13 At the beginning his words ¹⁶  are foolish

and at the end ¹⁷  his talk ¹⁸  is wicked madness, ¹⁹ 

10:14 yet a fool keeps on babbling. ²⁰ 

No one knows what will happen;

who can tell him what will happen in the future? ²¹ 

Matthew 12:34

12:34 Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.

Titus 1:10-11

1:10 For there are many ²²  rebellious people, idle talkers, and deceivers, especially those with Jewish connections, ²³  1:11 who must be silenced because they mislead whole families by teaching for dishonest gain what ought not to be taught.

James 3:6-8

3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ²⁴  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ²⁵  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ²⁶ 

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature ²⁷  is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. ²⁸  3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless ²⁹  evil, full of deadly poison.

James 3:2

3:2 For we all stumble ³⁰  in many ways. If someone does not stumble ³¹  in what he says, ³²  he is a perfect individual, ³³  able to control the entire body as well.

James 2:18

2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” ³⁴  Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by ³⁵  my works.

[10:19]  ¹ tn Heb “does not cease.” It is impossible to avoid sinning in an abundance of words – sooner or later one is bound to say something wrong.

[10:19]  ² tn Or “holds his lips under control.” The verb חָשַׂךְ (khasakh) means “to withhold; to restrain; to hold in check” (BDB 362 s.v.). The related Arabic term is used in reference to placing a piece of wood in the mouth of a goat to prevent it from sucking (HALOT 359 s.v. חשׂךְ).

[10:19]  ³ tn Heb “his lips” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “his tongue.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause for speech.

[13:16]  ⁴ sn The shrewd person knows the circumstances, dangers and pitfalls that lie ahead. So he deals with them wisely. This makes him cautious.

[13:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “spreads open” [his folly]. W. McKane suggests that this is a figure of a peddler displaying his wares (Proverbs [OTL], 456; cf. NAB “the fool peddles folly”). If given a chance, a fool will reveal his foolishness in public. But the wise study the facts and make decisions accordingly.

[29:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “his spirit.” It has been commonly interpreted to mean “his anger” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), but it probably means more than that. The fool gives full expression to his “soul,” whether it is anger or bitterness or frustration or any other emotions. He has no self-control.

[29:11]  ⁷ tn The line is difficult. The MT has בְּאחוֹר יְשַׁבְּחֶנָּה (bÿ’khor yÿshabbÿkhennah), which literally means “steals it back.” The verb שָׁבַח (shavakh) means “to soothe; to still,” as with a storm, or here with the temper. But because אָחוֹר (’akhor) does not fit very well with this verb, most commentators offer some suggested change. C. H. Toy reads “anger” instead of “back” and translates the verb “restrain” following the LXX, which has “self-control” (Proverbs [ICC], 510). The idea of self-control is what is intended, but the changes suggested are not entirely warranted. A number of English versions have “holds it back” (e.g., NASB, NRSV, NLT), and this fits the Hebrew as well as any.

[29:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “a man,” but there is no indication in the immediate context that this should be limited only to males.

[29:20]  ⁹ sn The focus of this proverb is on someone who is hasty in his words. This is the person who does not stop to think, but acts on the spur of the moment. To speak before thinking is foolishness.

[29:20]  ¹⁰ sn Rash speech cannot easily be remedied. The prospects for a fool are better (e.g., Prov 26:12).

[10:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “of a wise man’s mouth.”

[10:12]  ¹² tn The phrase “win him” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[10:12]  ¹³ tn Or “are gracious.” The antithetical parallelism suggests that חֵן (khen) does not denote “gracious character” but “[gain] favor” (e.g., Gen 39:21; Exod 3:21; 11:3; 12:36; Prov 3:4, 34; 13:15; 22:1; 28:23; Eccl 9:11); cf. HALOT 332 s.v. חֵן 2; BDB 336 s.v. חֵן 2. The LXX, on the other hand, rendered חֶן with χάρις (caris, “gracious”). The English versions are divided: “are gracious” (KJV, YLT, ASV, NASB, NIV) and “win him favor” (NEB, RSV, NRSV, NAB, MLB, NJPS, Moffatt).

[10:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lips.”

[10:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “consume him”; or “engulf him.” The verb I בלע (“to swallow”) creates a striking wordplay on the homonymic root II בלע (“to speak eloquently”; HALOT 134-35 s.v בלע). Rather than speaking eloquently (II בלע, “to speak eloquently”), the fool utters words that are self-destructive (I בלע, “to swallow, engulf”).

[10:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the words of his mouth.”

[10:13]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “his mouth.”

[10:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “madness of evil.”

[10:14]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “after him”; or “after he [dies].”

[1:10]  ²² tc ‡ The earliest and best mss lack καί (kai) after πολλοί (polloi; so א A C P 088 81 104 365 614 629 630 al sy co), though the conjunction is found in several significant witnesses, chiefly of the Western and Byzantine texts (D F G I Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï lat). Although it is possible that some scribes omitted the word, thinking it was superfluous, it is also possible that others added the conjunction for clarification. Judging by the pedigree of the witnesses and the inconclusiveness of the internal evidence, the shorter reading is considered to be most likely original. NA²⁷ puts the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[1:10]  ²³ tn Grk “those of the circumcision.” Some translations take this to refer to Jewish converts to Christianity (cf. NAB “Jewish Christians”; TEV “converts from Judaism”; CEV “Jewish followers”) while others are less clear (cf. NLT “those who insist on circumcision for salvation”).

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

[3:6]  ²⁵ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:6]  ²⁶ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

[3:7]  ²⁷ tn Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”

[3:7]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the human species.”

[3:8]  ²⁹ tc Most mss (C Ψ 1739^c Ï as well as a few versions and fathers) read “uncontrollable” (ἀκατασχετόν, akatasceton), while the most important witnesses (א A B K P 1739* latt) have “restless” (ἀκατάστατον, akatastaton). Externally, the latter reading should be preferred. Internally, however, things get a bit more complex. The notion of being uncontrollable is well suited to the context, especially as a counterbalance to v. 8a, though for this very reason scribes may have been tempted to replace ἀκατάστατον with ἀκατασχετόν. However, in a semantically parallel early Christian text, ἀκατάστατος (akatastato") was considered strong enough of a term to denounce slander as “a restless demon” (Herm. 27:3). On the other hand, ἀκατάστατον may have been substituted for ἀκατασχετόν by way of assimilation to 1:8 (especially since both words were relatively rare, scribes may have replaced the less familiar with one that was already used in this letter). On internal evidence, it is difficult to decide, though ἀκατασχετόν is slightly preferred. However, in light of the strong support for ἀκατάστατον, and the less-than-decisive internal evidence, ἀκατάστατον is preferred instead.

[3:2]  ³⁰ tn Or “fail.”

[3:2]  ³¹ tn Or “fail.”

[3:2]  ³² tn Grk “in speech.”

[3:2]  ³³ tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person,” as here (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2).

[2:18]  ³⁴ tn There is considerable doubt about where the words of the “someone” end and where James’ reply begins. Some see the quotation running to the end of v. 18; others to the end of v. 19. But most punctuate as shown above. The “someone” is then an objector, and the sense of his words is something like, “Some have faith; others have works; don’t expect everyone to have both.” James’ reply is that faith cannot exist or be seen without works.

[2:18]  ³⁵ tn Or “from.”