Bird's-eye view
This proverb, like so many in this section of the book, presents a sharp, antithetical parallelism. It sets two kinds of men, two kinds of mouths, and two kinds of outcomes side by side for our instruction. On the one hand, you have the wise man, whose life is characterized by accumulation and preservation. On the other, you have the ignorant fool, whose life is characterized by expenditure and destruction. The central issue is knowledge and how it is handled. For the wise, knowledge is a treasure to be gathered, stored, and protected. For the fool, the absence of knowledge, coupled with a talkative mouth, creates a vortex that pulls ruin down upon his own head. This is a proverb about the fundamental difference between a life that builds and a life that demolishes, and the pivot point is the relationship a man has with true knowledge and the words that come out of his mouth.
At its heart, this is a commentary on the nature of wisdom itself. Wisdom is not just about having clever thoughts; it is about a settled character that knows when to speak and when to be silent. The wise man understands that words have consequences, and so he gathers knowledge before he speaks. The fool is impetuous. He speaks from an empty heart, and his words are like a wrecking ball. The ruin he invites is not an unfortunate accident; it is the direct and predictable consequence of his own garrulous ignorance. This proverb teaches us that a closed mouth and an open mind are the marks of wisdom, while an open mouth and a closed mind are the freeway to destruction.
Outline
- 1. The Two Paths of Knowledge (Prov 10:14)
- a. The Treasury of the Wise (Prov 10:14a)
- b. The Trap of the Fool (Prov 10:14b)
Context In Proverbs
Proverbs 10:1 marks a significant shift in the book. The first nine chapters consist of longer, thematic discourses, personifying wisdom and folly as two women calling out to the simple. But when we arrive at chapter 10, the style changes to the short, pithy, two-part sayings that we typically associate with the word "proverb." This verse, 10:14, sits squarely in this collection of Solomon's proverbs, which runs through chapter 22. The dominant structure in this section is the antithetical parallel, where the second line presents a truth that is the stark opposite of the first. "A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother" (Prov 10:1). Our verse follows this exact pattern, contrasting the wise man's handling of knowledge with the fool's destructive speech. It is part of a dense tapestry of couplets that continually drive home the fundamental biblical distinction between the way of wisdom, which is the way of life, and the way of folly, which is the way of death.
Key Issues
- The Nature of Stored Knowledge
- The Connection Between Ignorance and Speech
- The Inevitability of Ruin for the Fool
- The Mouth as a Weapon of Self-Destruction
Two Treasuries, Two Mouths
The Lord Jesus taught us that a man speaks out of the abundance of his heart (Luke 6:45). The heart is the treasury, the storehouse. What you put in is what will eventually come out. This proverb is an Old Testament application of that very principle. It presents us with two kinds of hearts, which result in two kinds of speech, which in turn lead to two kinds of destiny.
The wise man is a man who is building a treasury. He is a collector, an accumulator of what is valuable. He understands that knowledge, true knowledge rooted in the fear of the Lord, is more precious than gold. He is not a know-it-all; he is a learner. He listens more than he talks. He reads, he studies, he observes, he asks questions. He is building capital. The fool, on the other hand, has no treasury. His heart is empty, and so his mouth runs on fumes. He is not a producer, but a consumer, and what he consumes is his own future. His speech is not an overflow of wisdom, but rather an exposure of his bankruptcy. And because nature abhors a vacuum, his empty words create a space that ruin is only too happy to fill.
Verse by Verse Commentary
14a Wise men store up knowledge,
The first clause gives us the positive side of the antithesis. The defining action of the wise is that they "store up" or "lay up" knowledge. The Hebrew word here has the sense of treasuring or concealing. This is not the activity of a hoarder who gathers information for its own sake. This is the careful, deliberate work of a man building a storehouse for winter. He knows that lean times are coming, that difficult questions will arise, that temptations will assail, and that he will need reserves of wisdom to draw upon. He stores up knowledge so that when he does speak, his words have weight and value. He is like a man who saves his money in a bank, so that when he writes a check, it doesn't bounce. This storing up is a discipline. It requires humility, the admission that you don't know everything. It requires diligence, the effort to learn. And it requires patience, the refusal to speak until you have something worthwhile to say.
14b But the mouth of the ignorant fool draws ruin near.
Now we see the contrast. The word for fool here is ewil, which in Proverbs often refers to a thick, complacent, and morally deficient person. His problem is not a low IQ, but a rebellious heart. And the instrument of his destruction is his own mouth. Notice the active nature of the phrase: his mouth "draws ruin near." The fool's speech is a magnet for disaster. The Hebrew for "ruin" is related to terror, dismay, and destruction. The fool, through his bragging, his slander, his lies, his gossip, his rash promises, and his sheer vacuous chatter, is actively summoning his own demise. He thinks his words are harmless, or perhaps even clever, but they are paving stones on the road to his own ruin. He is not building a treasury; he is digging a pit, and his own tongue is the shovel. Every time he opens his mouth, he is taking another scoop of dirt out of the hole he will eventually fall into. His ruin is not far off; it is "near," because his mouth is always with him, always ready to bring it closer.
Application
This proverb forces a very practical question upon us: is your life characterized by accumulation or by dissipation? Specifically, are you storing up knowledge, or are you running your mouth on empty? In our digital age, we are surrounded by the chattering of fools. Social media is a monument to the second half of this proverb. Millions of mouths are drawing ruin near, one post, one tweet, one comment at a time. The temptation for all of us is to join the cacophony, to speak before we think, to offer our un-stored opinions on every subject under the sun.
The path of wisdom is the path of quiet diligence. It means turning off the noise and opening the Book. It means recognizing that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and that all the treasures of wisdom are hidden in Christ (Col 2:3). Storing up knowledge, then, is not fundamentally an academic exercise; it is a devotional one. It is the discipline of filling your heart and mind with the truth of God's Word. When you do this, you are building a treasury. You are stocking the pantry of your soul.
Then, when you are called upon to speak, you will have something to offer. Your words will be like choice silver, not the clanging of a fool's cymbal. You will be a source of life and healing, not an agent of ruin. So, the application is simple. Talk less. Read more. Listen more. Pray more. Store up the knowledge of God in your heart, and trust that He will give you the words to speak when the time is right. Be a wise man who builds, not a fool who demolishes himself with his own lips.