Matthew Henry on Proverbs 18:6-7
Solomon has often shown what mischief bad men do to others with their ungoverned tongues; here he shows what mischief they do to themselves. 1. They embroil themselves in quarrels: A fool's lips, without any cause or call, enter into contention, by advancing foolish notions which others find themselves obliged to oppose, and so a quarrel is begun, or by giving provoking language, which will be resented, and satisfaction demanded, or by setting men at defiance, and bidding them do if they dare. Proud, and passionate men, and drunkards, are fools, whose lips enter into contention. A wise man may, against his will, be drawn into a quarrel, but he is a fool that of choice enters into it when he…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 18:6
The quarrelsome bring trouble on themselves. Their rash language ensnares them (Pro 6:2).
John Gill on Proverbs 18:6
A fool's lips enter into contention,.... That is, between others, when he has nothing to do with it; but he must be meddling, and make himself a party in the contention, which is an argument of his folly; he says things which occasion disputes, raise contentions among men, and provoke to wrath and anger. The Septuagint version is, "the lips of a fool lead him to evils": for, as they lead him to contention and strife, the issue of that is confusion and every evil work;
and his mouth calleth for strokes: as he stirs up and encourages contention, so he proceeds to blows, and excites others to them; from words he goes to blows, and, by the ill and provoking language of his mouth, gets many a bl…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 18:6
6 The lips of the fool engage in strife,
And his mouth calleth for stripes.
We may translate: the lips of the fool cause strife, for בּוא ב, to come with anything, e.g., Psa 66:13, is equivalent to bring it (to bring forward), as also: they engage in strife; as one says בּוא בדמים: to be engaged in bloodshed, Sa1 25:26. We prefer this intrant (ingerunt se), with Schultens and Fleischer. יבאוּ for תּבאנה, a synallage generis, to which, by means of a "self-deception of the language" (Fl.), the apparent masculine ending of such duals may have contributed. The stripes which the fool calleth for (קרא ל, like Pro 2:3) are such as he himself carries off, for it comes a verbis ad verbera. The lxx: h…
