15:7

Notice the parallel parts that contrast in meaning:

7a
The lips of the wise spread knowledge ;

7b but not so the hearts of fools.

The Berean Standard Bible puts the phrase “not so” at the beginning of 15:7b, forming a chiasm. In Hebrew, “not so” is at the end of the line. If a chiasm is not natural in your language, this line could be reordered as follows:

7b the heart of fools does not do so

Use whatever order is natural in your language.

15:7a–b

The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but not so the hearts of fools: The parallelism here is unusual, since lips do not usually form a pair with hearts. The contrast is also hard to understand, since lips (words) spread knowledge, but hearts do not “spread” anything. One explanation is that the Hebrews viewed the heart as the source of knowledge. They viewed the lips as the means to express that knowledge.

The implied information in 15:7a is that wise people spread knowledge ⌊that comes from their hearts⌋ . The parallel in 15:7b implies that fools ⌊have no knowledge⌋ in their hearts, so they cannot spread it. Some versions make explicit some the implied information in 15:7b. For example:

7a Wise people use their words to spread knowledge, 7b but there is no knowledge in the thoughts of fools. (New Century Version)

Consider how much implied information needs to be made explicit in your language to make the parallel contrast clear.

For more information on the significance of parts of the body, see the General Comment on 6:12–14 at the end of 6:14b.

15:7a

The lips of the wise: The lips of the wise is a figure of speech. It has the same meaning as “The tongue of the wise” in 15:2. It represents either the words that wise people speak or the wise people who speak the words.

spread knowledge: When wise people speak, they spread (literally “scatter”) knowledge. This means that they make known to many people what they know.

knowledge: This word occurs throughout Proverbs as a parallel pair with “wisdom.” So it is strongly implied that this is useful or beneficial knowledge or advice. Here is one way to make this implied meaning explicit:

Only the wise can give good advice. (New Living Translation (1996))

You will need to decide whether it is helpful to make this information explicit in your language.

15:7b

but not so the hearts of fools: Another way to translate this line is:

the heart of a fool has none to give (New Living Translation (2004))

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