The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters; The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.
Parallel translations
- WEB The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.
- KJV The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as 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.
- 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 the righteous is a spring of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
- Col 4:6Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
- John 4:14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
- Prov 13:14The teaching of the wise is a spring of life, to turn from the snares of death.
- John 7:38–39He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”
- Col 3:16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
- Ps 78:2I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,
- Matt 12:34You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
- Prov 16:22Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it, but the punishment of fools is their 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.