Ecclesiastes 10:14

A fool also is full of words,.... Or, "multiplies words" (y).

A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him? Full of words - boasting (as the context implies) of what he will do, how he will live in grandeur.

Full of words; either, 1. Talkative. Or, 2. Forward to promise and brag what he will do, which is the common practice of foolish men; he is a man of words, as we use to say. Who can tell him? these words contain either, 1. A inimical representation of his folly in using vain repetitions of the same words, such as those, a man cannot tell, & c., and who can tell, &c. Or, 2. A confutation of folly in promising or boasting of things which are wholly out of his power; for what shall be no man can either himself foreknow, or learn it from others.

Ecclesiastes 10:14 A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?Ver. 14. A fool also is full of words.] A very wordy man he is, and a great deal of small talk he has: Voces susque deque effutit inanes, as Thuanus hath it, he lays on more words than the matter will well bear. And this custom of his is graphically expressed by an imitation of his vain tautologies. "A man cannot tell," saith he, "what shall be after him; and what shall be after him, who can tell?" He hath got this sentence (that may well become a wise man, Ecclesiastes 6:12; Ecclesiastes 8:7) by the end, and he wears it threadbare; he hath never done with it, misapplying and abusing it to the defence of his wilful and witless enterprises. Thus the ass in the fable would needs imitate the dog, leaping and fawning in like manner on his master, but with ill success. "The lip of excellence becomes not a fool" But empty casks, we know, sound loudest, and baser metals ring shrillest; things of little worth are ever most plentiful. History and experience tell us that some kind of mouse breedeth one hundred and twenty young ones in one nest, αλλαλεοντα, whereas the lion and elephant bears but one at once; so the least wit yields the most words, and as any one is more wise, he is more sparing of his speeches. Hesiod saith that words, as a precious treasure, should be thriftily husbanded, and warily wasted. Christians know, that for every wasted word account must be given at the great day. Boni oratoris est sermonem habere rebus parem. - Plut.

(14) A man cannot tell.—This thought occurs repeatedly in this book. (See reff.) The connection here would be better seen if the clause were introduced with “and yet.” The fool’s courageous loquacity is contrasted with the cautious silence which experience of his ignorance has taught the wise man.

Verse 14. A man cannot tell what shall be] A foolish babbling man will talk on every subject, though he can say as little on the past, as he can on the future.

14. A fool also is full of words] Literally, multiplies words. The introduction of “a man” is not an idle pleonasm. The “man” is not the “fool,” but the fool forgets the limitations of human knowledge, as to what lies in the near future of his own life, or the more distant future that follows on his death, and speaks as if it all lay before him as an open scroll. The point of the maxim is like that with which we have become familiar in the region of political prediction in the words “Don’t prophesy unless you know.” Boasting of this kind, as regards a man’s own future, finds its reproof, as in the wisdom of all ages, so especially in the teaching of Luk 12:16-20; James 4:13-16.

Full of words - Confident talking of the future is indicated rather than mere loquacity. Compare James 4:13.

14. Full of words — The readiness of “the fool” to talk, even on the most difficult and incomprehensible subjects, is a sure index of his character. The clause, A man cannot tell, etc., should be introduced by though.