What Does Proverbs 15:2 Mean in the King James?
The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
In Hebrew, the fool’s mouth does not merely say folly, it gushes it like a spring, while wisdom makes knowledge good.
THE MEANING
Your tongue can make what you know beneficial, while your mouth can also let folly well up and spill out. The verse pictures speech as a flow whose character shows in what emerges.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that knowing more automatically makes your speech wise: wisdom makes knowledge beneficial, while a mouth can overflow with folly.
THE ROOT
יַבִּיעַ
yabbiaʿ
GROWS FROM
נבע
n-b-ʿ
Bubble up, well up, gush forth.
“poureth out” in this verse is yabbiaʿ. The verb pictures folly as something rising and gushing from a spring, not merely as a carefully chosen statement. The same root can describe a spring or flowing water, making the mouth a source whose outflow reveals what it carries.
ALSO GROWS
mabbuaʿ: Spring, fountain.
מַבּוּעַ
A spring brings water up from its source; the fool’s mouth similarly gushes folly.
nōvēaʿ: Bubbling or flowing.
נֹבֵעַ
This same root describes wisdom as a flowing brook in Proverbs 18:4, showing that what wells up can be wisdom as well as folly.
תֵּיטִיב
tētiv
GROWS FROM
יטב
y-t-b
Be good, do well, or make good.
The verb translated “useth aright” carries the sense of making knowledge good or beneficial. Wisdom is not just possession of information; its speech gives knowledge a fitting, useful form.
ALSO GROWS
heytiv: Did well; did good or benefited.
הֵיטִיב
This verbal form keeps the idea of doing good close to the wise tongue’s action toward knowledge.
meitav: Best, choicest.
מֵיטַב
This form carries the root’s sense of what is good or choice, echoing the wise tongue’s ability to bring out knowledge’s beneficial quality.
דָּעַת
daʿat
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
Know, perceive, recognize by encounter.
The word for knowledge grows from the verb for knowing, keeping knowledge connected to perception rather than detached information. The wise tongue makes this knowing beneficial instead of merely repeating facts.
ALSO GROWS
yada: Know, perceive.
יָדַע
The verb beneath “knowledge” ties what the wise tongue speaks to the act of knowing and perceiving.
yediʿah: Knowledge, awareness.
יְדִיעָה
This related noun shows the same root forming both the act of knowing and what is known.
THE PATTERN
Speech flows from a source, and its character is disclosed by what it gives out.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.THE THREAD
The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.The word translated “flowing” is נֹבֵעַ (nōvēaʿ, “bubbling or flowing”), from נבע (n-b-ʿ, “bubble up, gush”), the same root as “poureth out” here. In Proverbs 18:4 the flow carries wisdom; in Proverbs 15:2 a mouth can gush folly.
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