What Does Proverbs 15:2 Mean?
The tongue of the wise makes knowledge good, but the mouth of fools gushes out folly.
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
The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.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.
“gushes out folly” 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.
“makes knowledge good” in this verse is tētiv. 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 to day wells up speech; and night to night shows knowing.Deep waters, the words of a man's mouth; a springing brook, the wellspring of wisdom.You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.THE THREAD
Deep waters, the words of a man's mouth; a springing brook, the wellspring of wisdom.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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