What Does Proverbs 10:14 Mean?
The wise store up knowledge; but the mouth of the fool draws near to shattering.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.THE KEY
Wisdom is a hidden storehouse: the fool’s mouth stands near ruin.
THE MEANING
The verse sets two present realities beside each other: wisdom keeps knowledge gathered within, while the foolish mouth stands close to ruin. What is held inwardly and what comes outwardly are not separate; speech can bring destruction near.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that wisdom is proved by voicing everything one knows: the wise image is knowledge held in reserve, while foolish speech draws ruin near.
THE ROOT
יִצְפְּנוּ
yitzpenu
GROWS FROM
צפן
To hide, conceal, or store away as a treasure.
“store up” in this verse is yitzpenu. The verb translated “lay up” carries the sense of hiding or treasuring something away. Wisdom appears as knowledge kept within, not displayed at every opening of the mouth.
ALSO GROWS
tsaphun: Hidden or concealed.
צָפוּן
The wise person’s knowledge is kept out of sight, like something valuable stored away.
tsephunim: Hidden things or treasures.
צְפוּנִים
This branch makes the storing of knowledge feel like guarding something precious, not merely accumulating facts.
דָּעַת
daʿat
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
The knowledge being stored is daʿat, from yada: knowing, perceiving, recognizing. The verse points beyond a stockpile of information to what has become known and is held within.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know, perceive, or recognize.
יָדַע
The root links stored knowledge to knowing by encounter, rather than to facts alone.
yodea: One who knows.
יֹדֵעַ
The wise person is pictured as someone who carries what has become known, rather than rushing to speak.
THE PATTERN
What is held within shapes what the mouth brings forth, and speech can bring wisdom or ruin near.
A shrewd man covers knowledge, but the heart of fools calls out folly.A good human brings out good from the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human brings out evil from the evil treasure of the heart, for from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.And the tongue is fire, a world of crookedness. It is set among our limbs, staining the whole body and setting the wheel of becoming ablaze, and it is lit by Gehenna.THE THREAD
A shrewd man covers knowledge, but the heart of fools calls out folly.The same Hebrew word for “knowledge” appears here, again beside a contrast between what is kept and what foolishness brings into speech. The shared root connects knowing with what the prudent hold within, while the fool’s heart gives foolishness a voice.
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