Proverbs 18:4
Words from the mouth of a man are as deep water: and the fountain of wisdom as an overflowing stream.
Open Proverbs 18:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Aqua profunda verba ex ore viri, et torrens redundans fons sapientiæ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὕδωρ βαθὺ λόγος ἐν καρδίᾳ ἀνδρός, ποταμὸς δὲ ἀναπηδύει καὶ πηγὴ ζωῆς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- מַ֣יִם עֲ֭מֻקִּים דִּבְרֵ֣י פִי אִ֑ישׁ נַ֥חַל נֹ֝בֵ֗עַ מְק֣וֹר חָכְמָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Man, who is just and wise. His advice deserves attention, chap. xx. 5.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus, In proof of this, I bring forward the prefaces to my Translation of the Books from Genesis to Isaiah
I have received letters so long and eagerly desired from my dear Desiderius who, as if the future had been foreseen, shares his name with Daniel, entreating me to put our friends in possession of a translation of the Pentateuch from Hebrew into Latin. The work is certainly hazardous and it is exposed to the attacks of my calumniators, who maintain that it is through contempt of the Seventy that I have set to work to forge a new version to take the place of the old. They thus test ability as they do wine; whereas I have again and again declared that I dutifully offer, in the Tabernacle of God what I can, and have pointed out that the great gifts which one man brings are not marred by the inferior gifts of another. …
St Gregory the Great The Book of Pastoral Rule, How the silent and the talkative are to be admonished
Moreover, since the indolent mind for the most part lapses by degrees into downfall, while we neglect to guard against idle words we go on to hurtful ones; so that at first it pleases us to talk of other men’s affairs; afterwards the tongue gnaws with detraction the lives of those of whom we talk; but at last breaks out even into open slanders. Hence are sown pricking thorns, quarrels arise, the torches of enmities are kindled, the peace of hearts is extinguished. Whence it is well said through Solomon, He that letteth out water is a well-spring of strifes ( Prov. xvii. 14 ). For to let out water is to let loose the tongue to a flux of speech. Wherefore, on the other hand, in a good sense it is said again, The words of a man’s mouth are as deep water ( Ibid. xviii. 4 ). …