A fool’s lips enter into contention.
The speech of a splenetic fool
How frequently Solomon speaks of the fool! and the fool in his idea was not an intellectually demented man, but a morally bad man.
I. It is querulous. “A fool’s lips enter into contention.” His ill-nature shows itself in his readiness to pick quarrels, to create frays.
II. It is provocational. “His mouth calleth for strokes.” They irritate the men they speak to, and often prompt to acts of violence.
III. It is self-ruinous. “A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.” Such speech is indeed destructive.
1. It destroys the man’s own reputation. A querulous man has no social respect or command; he is shunned.
2. It destroys the man’s own social enjoyment. He has no loving fellowships, no lasting friendships.
3. It destroys the man’s own peace of mind.
IV. It is socially injurious. “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” The talebearer as a rule is a man with a splenetic temperament; he delights in mischief. (Homilist.)