Ecclesiastes 10:13

The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
beginning	תְּחִלַּ֥ת te.chi.Lat	H8462	a commencement · noun, common feminine singular construct
words	דִּבְרֵי div.rei-	H1697	a word · noun, common masculine plural construct
mouth	פִ֖יהוּ Fi.hu	H6310	the mouth (as the means of blowing) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
foolishness	סִכְל֑וּת sikh.Lut	H5531	silliness · noun, common feminine singular absolute
end	וְאַחֲרִ֣ית ve.'a.cha.Rit	H319	the last or end · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct
talk	פִּ֔יהוּ Pi.hu	H6310	the mouth (as the means of blowing) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
mischievous	רָעָֽה ra.'Ah	H7451	bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
madness	הוֹלֵל֖וּת ho.le.Lut	H1948	folly · noun, common feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

1 Samuel 25:10-11 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away…
Proverbs 29:9 If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest.
Judges 14:15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said unto Samson’s wife, Entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest…
1 Samuel 20:26-33 Nevertheless Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.
1 Samuel 22:7-8 Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and viney…
1 Samuel 22:16-18 And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father’s house.
2 Samuel 19:41-20:1 And, behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said unto the king, Why have our brethren the men of Judah stolen thee away, and ha…
2 Kings 6:27 And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 10:12-15

Solomon, having shown the benefit of wisdom, and of what great advantage it is to us in the management of our affairs, here shows the mischief of folly and how it exposes men, which perhaps comes in as a reflection upon those rulers who set folly in great dignity. I. Fools talk a great deal to no purpose, and they show their folly as much by the multitude, impertinence, and mischievousness of their words, as by any thing; whereas the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, are grace, manifest grace in his heart and minister grace to the hearers, are good, and such as become him, and do good to all about him, the lips of a fool not only expose him to reproach and make him ridiculous, but wi…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 10:13

Illustrating the folly and injuriousness of the fool's words; last clause of Ecc 10:12.

John Gill on Ecclesiastes 10:13

The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness,.... As soon as ever he opens his mouth, he betrays his folly; the first word he speaks is a foolish one; or it is from the abundant folly in his heart that he speaks, which is the source and spring of all his foolish talk; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness; to himself and others; as he goes on, he appears more and more foolish, and yet more confident of his own wisdom; and is resolutely set on having his own way and will; grows warm, and is violently hot, to have his own words regarded; and, if contradicted, is like a madman, scattering arrows, firebrands, and death; his talk from first to last is a circle of folly; and, t…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 10:13

"The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his mouth is mischievous madness." From folly (absurdity) the words which are heard from a fool's mouth rise to madness, which is compounded of presumption, wantonness, and frenzy, and which, in itself a symptom of mental and moral depravity, brings as its consequence destruction on himself (Pro 18:17). The adjective רעה is as in רע חלי, which interchanges with רעה חו Ecc 6:2; Ecc 5:12, etc. The end of his mouth, viz., of his speaking, is = the end of the words of his mouth, viz., the end which they at last reach. Instead of holeloth, there is here, with the adj. following, holeluth, with the usual ending of abstracta. T…

The Church Fathers

The church was admonished to shun the beginning of sin. Which is that beginning of sin, like the head of a serpent? The beginning of all sin is pride.
— Augustine of Hippo, EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 74:13

"His talk begins as foolishness and ends as evil madness. The fool prates on and on, but man does not know what will be; and who can tell him what will be after him? "So far the discussion has been about the fool, whose lips teach the wise man, or according to another interpretation, his lips make himself corrupt. The beginning and the end of his speech are foolishness and evil madness; or as Symmachus has translated it, confusion, or some kind of inconsistency of words. For while he doesn't keep to the one opinion, he thinks he can escape sin in the many arguments he speaks at the same time. But he does not remember all those who have gone before him, and does not know what will happen after him, and so is confused in ignorance and the darkness, promising himself false knowledge; by this he thinks that he is wise, and that he is learned, if he uses lots of words. This can be taken to refer to the heretics, who do not heed the words of wise men, but continue to argue different sides so they intertwine the beginning and end of their speech in vanity, confusion, and madness; and though they know nothing, they speak more than they know.
— Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Fool · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Slander · End of, is mischievous madness — End of, is mischievous madness
Speaking · FOLLY IN — FOLLY IN
Words · Will swallow himself — Will swallow himself

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Ecclesiastes 10:13

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 10:12-15

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 10:13

John Gill on Ecclesiastes 10:13

Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 10:13

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Ecclesiastes 10:13

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 10:12-15

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 10:13

John Gill on Ecclesiastes 10:13

Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 10:13

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Ecclesiastes 10:12

Rashi on Ecclesiastes 10:13