In the mouth of the foolish [is] a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.
Ver. 3. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride.] Wherewith he beats others, and lays about him like a madman, or rather like a mad dog he bites all he meets, and barks against God himself; till he procure the hate of God and men, and smart for his petulance, being beaten at length with his own rod, as the lion beats himself with his own tail.
But the lips of the wise shall preserve them.] From the aspersion of false and foolish tongues. Their good names are oiled, so that evil reports will not stick to them. Dirt will stick upon a mud wall, not so upon marble. Or if they lie under some undeserved reproach for a season, either by a real or verbal apology they wade out of it, as the eclipsed moon by keeping her motion wades out of the shadow and recovers her splendour. Isa 54:17