The Lord then addressed good, comforting words to the angelic messenger who was speaking to me.

Like a kiss on the lips is the one who gives an honest answer.

“Should not this abundance of words be answered, or should this talkative man be vindicated?

There is no actual speech or word, nor is its voice literally heard.

When words abound, transgression is inevitable, but the one who restrains his words is wise.

Like cutting off the feet or drinking violence, so is sending a message by the hand of a fool.

Just as dreams come when there are many cares, so the rash vow of a fool occurs when there are many words.

The more one argues with words, the less he accomplishes. How does that benefit him?

They utter empty words, taking false oaths and making empty agreements. Therefore legal disputes sprout up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a plowed field.

Then Moses gave a ruling to the Israelites by the word of the Lord: “What the tribe of the Josephites is saying is right.

Then the Lord spoke to you from the middle of the fire; you heard speech but you could not see anything – only a voice was heard.

Moreover, he has raised accusations of impropriety by saying, ‘I discovered your daughter was not a virgin,’ but this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” The cloth must then be spread out before the city’s elders.

They burned incense on all the high places just like the nations whom the Lord had driven away from before them. Their evil practices made the Lord angry.

They said to him, “If you are fair to these people, grant their request, and are cordial to them, they will be your servants from this time forward.”

So when Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord relented from his anger and did not annihilate him; Judah experienced some good things.

Nevertheless you have done some good things; you removed the Asherah poles from the land and you were determined to follow the Lord.”

yet a fool keeps on babbling. No one knows what will happen; who can tell him what will happen in the future?

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan.

Return to the Lord and repent! Say to him: “Completely forgive our iniquity; accept our penitential prayer, that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls.

Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not an eloquent man, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”