A Bird of the Sky May Carry Your Voice
12 The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but a fool is swallowed by his own lips. 13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. 14 A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him? 15 The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn’t know how to go to the city. 16 Woe to you, land, when your king is a child, and your princes eat in the morning! 17 Happy are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! 18 By slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idleness of the hands the house leaks. 19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes the life glad; and money is the answer for all things. 20 Don’t curse the king, no, not in your thoughts; and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom, for a bird of the sky may carry your voice, and that which has wings may tell the matter.
A fool is undone by his own mouth, and the chapter ends by warning that even a thought about the king does not stay private.
Verse 12 sets the contrast in the mouth: a wise man's words are gracious, and a fool is swallowed by his own lips. The image is of being eaten by the organ he speaks with.
Verse 13 traces the progression — foolishness at the beginning of his talk, mischievous madness at the end — so the damage is in the duration. He talks himself from silly to dangerous, which is why verse 14 notes that a fool also multiplies words, the fault chapter 5 warned about at the sanctuary door Ecclesiastes 5:2.
Verses 16 and 17 pair a woe and a blessing on the same subject, and the difference between them is timing rather than morality: princes who eat in the morning against princes who eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness. Food at the wrong hour is the mark of a country in trouble.
Verse 18 gives decay its most domestic form: by slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idleness of the hands the house leaks. Nothing is attacked. It simply is not maintained.
Verse 19 states a proverb flatly and without endorsement: money is the answer for all things. The book has already said that a man who loves silver is never satisfied by it Ecclesiastes 5:10 and that increase only multiplies the mouths consuming it Ecclesiastes 5:11. The saying is set down as the working assumption of the world it describes, and the earlier findings stand where they were.
And verse 20 is the sharpest observation in the chapter: don't curse the king, no, not in your thoughts; and don't curse the rich in your bedroom, for a bird of the sky may carry your voice.
A thought and a bedroom are the two most private places a person has, and the verse treats neither as sealed.
settled What this mark means