Proverbs 18:4
New International Version
The words of the mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream.

New Living Translation
Wise words are like deep waters; wisdom flows from the wise like a bubbling brook.

English Standard Version
The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

Berean Standard Bible
The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

King James Bible
The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.

New King James Version
The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook.

New American Standard Bible
The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters; The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

NASB 1995
The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

NASB 1977
The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

Legacy Standard Bible
The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; The fountain of wisdom is a flowing brook.

Amplified Bible
The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters [copious and difficult to fathom]; The fountain of [mature, godly] wisdom is like a bubbling stream [sparkling, fresh, pure, and life-giving].

Christian Standard Bible
The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters, a flowing river, a fountain of wisdom.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters, a flowing river, a fountain of wisdom.

American Standard Version
The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters; The wellspring of wisdom is as a flowing brook.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
The words of a man's mouth are deep waters and the fount of wisdom is a rushing torrent.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
A word in the heart of a man is a deep water, and a river and fountain of life spring forth.

Contemporary English Version
Words of wisdom are a stream that flows from a deep fountain.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Words from the mouth of a men are as deep water: and the fountain of wisdom as an overflowing stream.

English Revised Version
The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters; the wellspring of wisdom is as a flowing brook.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The words of a person's mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is an overflowing stream.

Good News Translation
A person's words can be a source of wisdom, deep as the ocean, fresh as a flowing stream.

International Standard Version
The words a man says are as deep waters— a fountain of wisdom is an overflowing stream.

JPS Tanakh 1917
The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters; A flowing brook, a fountain of wisdom.

Literal Standard Version
The words of a man’s mouth [are] deep waters, | The fountain of wisdom [is] a flowing brook.

Majority Standard Bible
The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

New American Bible
The words of one’s mouth are deep waters, the spring of wisdom, a running brook.

NET Bible
The words of a person's mouth are like deep waters, and the fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.

New Revised Standard Version
The words of the mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a gushing stream.

New Heart English Bible
The words of a man's mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.

Webster's Bible Translation
The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as a flowing brook.

World English Bible
The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.

Young's Literal Translation
Deep waters are the words of a man's mouth, The fountain of wisdom is a flowing brook.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Selfishness of the Unfriendly
3With a wicked man comes contempt as well, and shame is accompanied by disgrace. 4The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook. 5Showing partiality to the wicked is not good, nor is depriving the innocent of justice.…

Cross References
Proverbs 10:11
The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

Proverbs 18:3
With a wicked man comes contempt as well, and shame is accompanied by disgrace.

Proverbs 20:5
The intentions of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.


Treasury of Scripture

The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.

words

Proverbs 10:11
The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.

Proverbs 13:14
The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

Proverbs 16:22
Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.

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Brook Bubbling Deep Flowing Fountain Mouth Stream Waters Wellspring Well-Spring Wisdom Words
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Brook Bubbling Deep Flowing Fountain Mouth Stream Waters Wellspring Well-Spring Wisdom Words
Proverbs 18
1. A fool delights not in understanding














(4) The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters . . .--i.e., the words of a "man," properly so called, are as deep waters which cannot be easily fathomed; they are a copious stream, which flows from a never failing source; they are a fountain of wisdom which is never exhausted.

Verse 4. - The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters. "Man" (ish) here means the ideal man in all his wisdom and integrity, just as in Proverbs 18:22 the ideal wife is intended under the general term "wife." Such a man's words are as deep waters which cannot be fathomed or exhausted. The metaphor is common (see Proverbs 20:5; Ecclesiastes 7:24; Ecclus. 21:13). For "mouth," the Septuagint reads "heart:" "Deep water is a word in a man's heart." The second hemistich explains the first: The well spring of wisdom as a flowing (gushing) brook. A man's words are now called a well spring of wisdom, gushing forth from its source, the wise and understanding heart, pure, fresh, and inexhaustible. Septuagint, "And it leapeth forth (ἀναπηδύει) a river and a fountain of life." Or we may, with Delitzsch, take the whole as one idea, and consider that a man's words are deep waters, a bubbling brook, and a fountain of wisdom.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
The words
דִּבְרֵ֣י (diḇ·rê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 1697: A word, a matter, thing, a cause

of a man’s
אִ֑ישׁ (’îš)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 376: A man as an individual, a male person

mouth
פִי־ (p̄î-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 6310: The mouth, edge, portion, side, according to

are deep
עֲ֭מֻקִּים (‘ă·muq·qîm)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 6013: Deep

waters;
מַ֣יִם (ma·yim)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 4325: Water, juice, urine, semen

the fountain
מְק֣וֹר (mə·qō·wr)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4726: Something dug, a, source, of happiness, wisdom, progeny)

of wisdom
חָכְמָֽה׃ (ḥāḵ·māh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 2451: Wisdom

is a bubbling
נֹ֝בֵ֗עַ (nō·ḇê·a‘)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 5042: To gush forth, to utter, to emit

brook.
נַ֥חַל (na·ḥal)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5158: A stream, a winter torrent, a, valley, a shaft


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 18:4 The words of a man's mouth (Prov. Pro Pr)
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