Ecclesiastes 10:14

14 and fools multiply words. No one knows what is coming— who can tell someone else what will happen after them?

Ecclesiastes 10:14 in Other Translations

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?

14 A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him?

14 they chatter on and on. No one really knows what is going to happen; no one can predict the future.

14 Fools talk way too much, Chattering stuff they know nothing about.

14 Yet the fool multiplies words. No one knows what will happen, and who can tell anyone what will happen after him?

Ecclesiastes 10:14 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 10:14

A fool also is full of words
Or, "multiplies words" ^F25. Is very talkative, says the same thing over and over again; uses an abundance of waste words, that have no meaning in them; utters every thing that comes uppermost, without any order or judgment; affects to talk on every subject, whether he knows anything of it or not; and will engross all the conversation to himself, though of all in company the most unfit for it; a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him who can
tell him?
what the fool is talking of; what is the drift of his discourse; or where it will end, and what he will bring it to, it is so noisy, confused, and incoherent: or no man can tell future things, or what will come to pass; nor can any man inform another of future events; and yet a fool boasts and brags of what he shall do, and what he shall have, as if he was master of the future, and knew for certain what would come to pass, which the wisest of men do not.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 (hbry) "multiplicabit", Pagninus, Montanus; "multiplicat", Vatablus, Mercerus, Drusius, Amama, Gejerus, Rambachius, Cocceius.

Ecclesiastes 10:14 In-Context

12 Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious, but fools are consumed by their own lips.

13 At the beginning their words are folly; at the end they are wicked madness—

14 and fools multiply words. No one knows what is coming— who can tell someone else what will happen after them?

15 The toil of fools wearies them; they do not know the way to town.

16 Woe to the land whose king was a servantand whose princes feast in the morning.

Cross References

• 1. Proverbs 15:2; Ecclesiastes 5:3; Ecclesiastes 6:12; Ecclesiastes 8:7
• 2. Ecclesiastes 9:1