8 The wise of heart will receive commandments,
but a babbling fool will come to ruin.
9 Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,
but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.
10 Whoever winks the eye causes trouble,
but a babbling fool will come to ruin.
11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,
but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
12 Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers all offences.
13 On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found,
but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.
The wise in heart can be spoken to (8) and are willing to learn and receive correction. For the Christian, this is the way in which his love for Christ is manifested. By contrast, the prating fool, too wise in his own conceit to think he needs correction, has to learn the hard way, often by being found out (9b RSV) in the most humiliating kind of way. Again in 8 and 9 we see the correlation between wisdom and ethical integrity. The picture is a very fine one, and its inevitable outcome is seen in the fruitfulness that such a life shows forth (11). The use of the metaphor of speech here ('mouth') is meant to indicate that the integrity is communicable and communicated to others: influence is exercised by such men (cf Isaiah 50:4), and it is the moral quality, not the giftedness of life, that matters and counts. This thought is continued in 13, where the idea is that 'if your mind is enlightened, wisdom will overflow into your words, and so into other
lives' (Kidner). The meaning of the phrase 'love covereth' (12b) is seen from its converse in 12b, 'hatred 'stirs'. A man with hate in his heart will stir up trouble for others, whereas a man who loves will want to hush up the sins of others, so as not to let them be gossiped about by others. Moffatt has a wonderful translation of 1Corinthians 13:6: 'Love is never glad when others go wrong'. This is the spirit that breathes in 12. May it ever be ours: Alexander Whyte of Free St George's had a motto on his study wall with the words, 'Is it true? Is it kind to repeat it? Is it necessary to repeat it?' Is there not a good case for saying that, the more we repeat, the less we love? It is better to be a terminal than a channel, for some of the items of information that are passed on to us about others. When we do pass them on (in confidence, of course!), we tend to call it sharing; but the world's name for it is gossip.