Words of the Wise and Fool (Ecc 10: 12- 15)

WORDS OF THE WISE AND FOOL (Ecc 10: 12- 15):

The author writes that the words of a wise man’s mouth win him a favor, but the lips of a fool consume himself. The words of a person define a person and could change the life of a person at times. The person is identified as wise or a fool based on the words and the actions. A person who is wise need not worry much about his future for he will be welcomed by many for his wisdom, for the words of the wise person helps him to gain favor in the sight of the people. The wise person knows to speak the right words at the right time. Whereas the fool will be caught by his words as it is without any sense and meaning in front of others, as the fool does not know what to speak according to the situations or people. The fool will be disbursed by people by his own words at times.

The author also writes that the beginning of the words of fools’ mouth is foolishness and the end of his talk is evil madness. A foolish person does not analyze the situation and context before starting to talk but starts talking just for the sake of doing it without any purpose and direction. Also, the fool ends up talking something that is completely irrelevant to what had been started. So the person who hears and genuinely listens to a fool gets confused by the madness of his speech. The author further writes that a fool multiplies words. Though no man knows what is to be and no one could tell what will be after him, a foolish person talks a lot by connecting so many things irrelevantly and does not make sense because there is no real meaning talking about it. No one knows what will be the response of a fool one after the other and no one could tell the thoughts of the fool as it is senseless without connection, meaning, and direction. Therefore no one could respond to the fool and explain the things after him.

The author further writes that the toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city. A foolish person works to please himself and no one finds value in it. Though the works of the foolish man are of no worth, still he spends his energy in the directionless work and surely it tires him. As the fool toils without meaning and direction, the toils may not be constructive which may make him worry. Also, a fool doesn’t know what to reap out of his toils because he doesn’t take it home or take the toils to the neighbor city as he doesn’t know the way of acting out things.

Stimulations for Self-Reflection:

1.    What wins wise man’s favor? How?

2.    What consumes a fool? How?

3.    How the beginning words of a fool is? Why?

4.    How the end of the talk of a fool is? Why?

5.    What does the author say about the fool?

6.    Why no one could tell a fool what will be after him?

7.    What wearies a fool? Why?

8.    How the toil of the fool wearies him?

9.    How we can be wise in our words?

10.  How we can respond to a fool?