In all labour there is profit, &c. Diligent labour is the ready way to riches; but idle talking, wherein too many spend most of their precious time, will bring a man to poverty. Houbigant renders the verse, All labour will produce abundance, but garrulity nothing but want.
“Solomon here,” says Lord Bacon, as quoted by Bishop Patrick, “separates the fruit of the labour of the tongue, and of the labour of the hands; as if want was the revenue of the one, and wealth the revenue of the other. For it commonly comes to pass that they who talk liberally, boast much, and promise mighty matters, are beggars, and receive no benefit by their brags, or by any thing they discourse of. Nay, rather, for the most part, such men are not industrious and diligent in their employment; but only feed and fill themselves with words as with wind.”