Babble

"On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin" (Proverbs 10:13-14).

In this particular contrast between wisdom and foolishness, the focus is on what is and isn't said. For those who have wisdom, they speak from great understanding, though they may speak very few words. The fool is the one who lacks sense and thus faces certain ruin if they don't respond to the rod applied to their backside.

I have seen it happen to others as well as to myself. We talk too much about things we know very little about. Doing that gets us into a lot of trouble. We are told that those who are wise "lay up knowledge." This means they hold it in until the right moment. They don't spout off, all at once, everything they know .

Those who have wisdom speak wisely while those who lack wisdom speak foolishly. We find that the wise are prudent with their words and thus their reward is sweet. The fool lacks sense and so he babbles. We are told that his punishment (opposite of reward) is a rod across the back.

As we grow in knowledge and understanding, let's be careful not to "spout off" about we know or "babble" about what we don't know. Let's be prudent with our words; speaking only about what we really know and have experienced. If we find ourselves being the babbling fool, let's be ready to take that which we deserve; a rod across the back.