CHAPTER 13

Guarding the Mouth, Guarding the Life

This chapter pairs everyday self-control — what you say, how you handle money, how you receive correction — with the longer view of legacy: what gets passed down to children and grandchildren. It ends with one of the book's most debated verses on discipline, framed deliberately as an act of love rather than mere control.

1 ‘A wise son heareth his father's instruction; but a scoffer heareth not rebuke’ — the book's opening theme returns as the chapter's first line: receptiveness to correction remains the clearest early marker of wisdom or its absence.

2 ‘A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth; but the soul of the treacherous shall eat violence’ — speech is pictured as food a person eventually has to consume themselves — whatever kind they habitually produce.

3 ‘He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his life; but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction’ — restraint in speech is elevated to a matter of self-preservation, not merely etiquette.

4 ‘The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat’ — desire alone accomplishes nothing; only desire joined to effort produces anything worth having.

5 ‘A righteous man hateth lying; but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame’ — hatred of lying is treated as an active, felt conviction in the righteous, not merely an absence of the habit.

6 ‘Righteousness guardeth him that is upright in the way; but wickedness overthroweth the sinner’ — character is again pictured as protection or as the very cause of one's own downfall.

7 ‘There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing; and that maketh himself poor, yet hath great wealth’ — outward appearance and inward reality are shown to sometimes run in opposite directions entirely; the proverb warns against judging by display.

8 ‘The ransom of a man's life is his riches; but the poor heareth no threatening’ — wealth can become a liability as easily as an asset, attracting exactly the kind of threats poverty is spared.

9 ‘The light of the righteous rejoiceth; but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out’ — light imagery, used throughout the book (compare 4:18–19), here contrasts ongoing joy with an ending that is abrupt and final.

10 ‘By pride cometh only contention; but with the well-advised is wisdom’ — pride is named as producing nothing but conflict, while wisdom is specifically linked to being willing to be advised by others.

11 ‘Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; but he that gathereth by labor shall have increase’ — the manner of gaining wealth, not merely the amount, determines whether it lasts.

12 ‘Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life’ — an unusually psychological proverb, naming the real toll of prolonged waiting alongside the real vitality that fulfilled longing brings.

13 ‘Whoso despiseth the word bringeth destruction on himself; but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded’ — the consequence for disregarding instruction is described as self-inflicted, not externally imposed.

14 ‘The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death’ — wisdom's teaching is pictured, as in 10:11, as a source that actively sustains rather than a rule that merely restricts.

15 ‘Good understanding giveth favor; but the way of the transgressor is hard’ — the transgressor's road is described plainly as harder, not easier — a quiet correction of the assumption that wrongdoing is the path of least resistance.

16 ‘Every prudent man worketh with knowledge; but a fool flaunteth his folly’ — the prudent apply what they know quietly and functionally, while the fool puts ignorance on public display, seemingly without realizing it.

17 ‘A wicked messenger falleth into evil; but a faithful ambassador is health’ — reliability in carrying communication between others is treated as a moral matter with real consequences for everyone involved, not just a professional skill.

18 ‘Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction; but he that regardeth reproof shall be honored’ — the chapter's opening theme of receiving correction returns, now tied explicitly to social outcome — honor or shame.

19 ‘The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul; but it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil’ — the fool's aversion isn't to sweetness itself but specifically to leaving evil behind — the one thing that would actually let their other desires be fulfilled well.

20 ‘Walk with wise men, and thou shalt be wise; but the companion of fools shall smart for it’ — character is shown as contagious; who a person spends time with is treated as a real, causal influence, not incidental company.

21 ‘Evil pursueth sinners; but the righteous shall be rewarded with good’ — consequence is pictured almost as a hunter, actively tracking down the sinner rather than waiting passively to be encountered.

22 ‘A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children; and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous’ — the proverb takes a generational view; what is built faithfully outlasts the builder, and what is built wrongly often ends up benefiting someone else entirely.

23 ‘Much food is in the tillage of the poor; but there is that is destroyed by reason of injustice’ — the poor's own honest labor can yield real abundance, but injustice — someone else's, imposed on them — can just as easily wipe it out.

24 ‘He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes’ — a hard saying to modern ears, but its logic mirrors 3:11–12: withholding needed correction is framed here not as kindness but as a failure to love, while discipline given early and consistently ('betimes') is named as love's actual expression.

25 ‘The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul; but the belly of the wicked shall want’ — the chapter closes on contentment itself as a marker of character — one soul genuinely satisfied, the other perpetually, restlessly wanting.