Like so many Old Testament proverbs, verse 12 gives instruction by showing the wide gap between wise and foolish behavior.

The words of a wise man’s mouth renders the Hebrew literally (so also New American Bible and Jerusalem Bible). It is more common to say “what a wise person says” or “the words of a wise person.”

Win … favor is Revised Standard Version‘s rendering of the noun that describes the wise person’s speech as “gracious.” In 9.11 this same term described the “favor” a person obtained. Here the sense is probably similar, hence Good News Translation “brings him honor.” We may also say “When a wise person speaks, people respect him.” Others think the term “gracious” means that the words bring about harmonious relationships, presumably between the speaker and those addressed.

But marks this next clause as contrasting the wise person with the fool. The translator should use a contrastive conjunction or any other device marking contrast. In some languages the lack of a conjunction may serve this purpose. The lips of a fool is much like the previous clause, in that the body part represents an action. Here the lips are figurative for what a person says; hence Good News Translation “his own words.” New English Bible changes lips to “tongue,” perhaps because in English it is quite common to use “tongue” as a figure for speech.

Consume him: in modern English the verb consume can have the meaning that this is a person’s main passion, interest, or occupation. Here, however, the sense is that the fool is destroyed by his foolish speaking. The fool’s lips actually “eat him up” (compare 4.5).

Part of the delight of this Hebrew proverb is the very effective use of language. The first clause is more or less a straightforward statement: the “words of the mouth of the wise” are “gracious.” But in the second part of the verse “words” is lacking, and we have a much more graphic picture of the person’s lips actually swallowing him! The translator can try translating literally to see if the meaning (and humor) can be conveyed in this way. If not, we may be able to retain a wordplay on “mouth” in the first and second line: “The words from the mouth of the wise are pleasing, but the mouth of the fool eats him up,” or even “The mouth of the wise man brings him respect; the mouth of the fool eats him up.” If the figures “mouth” and “lips” do not convey the sense in translation, then we will be forced to render the sense less figuratively:

• The effect of a wise man’s words is pleasing, but a fool destroys himself by what he says.

• What a wise man says brings him respect. What a foolish man says brings about his destruction.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .