The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.
Parallel translations
- WEB The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.
- BSB The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.
- NKJV The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook.
- NASB The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters; The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.
- NLT Wise words are like deep waters; wisdom flows from the wise like a bubbling brook.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wise words are deep and refreshing, like flowing water. Speech rooted in wisdom is rich, life-giving, and inexhaustible.
Overview
The words of a wise person are likened to deep waters and a bubbling brook, suggesting both profundity and refreshment. While 'deep waters' can elsewhere imply something hidden, here the parallel with the flowing fountain of wisdom highlights nourishing speech. Christ, the source of wisdom, offers living water (John 4:14; 7:38) that springs up to eternal life, the deepest well from which gracious words flow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 20:5Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.
- Prov 10:11The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
- Col 4:6Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
- John 4:14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
- Prov 13:14The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.
- John 7:38–39He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
- Col 3:16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
- Ps 78:2I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
- Matt 12:34O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
- Prov 16:22Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 18:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.