The words of a man's mouth [are as] deep waters, [and] the wellspring of wisdom [as] a flowing brook.
Ver. 4. The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters.] Fitly are the words of the wise resembled to waters, saith one, inasmuch as they both wash the minds of the hearers, that the foulness of sin remain not therein, and water them in such sort that they faint not, nor wither by a drought and burning desire of heavenly doctrine. Now these words of the wise are of two sorts - some are as deep waters, and cannot easily be fathomed, as Samson's riddles and Solomon's apothegms, so very much admired by the Queen of Sheba, 2 Chronicles 9:1,9; some again are plain, and flow so easily, as a flowing brook, that the simplest may understand them. The same may be affirmed of the holy Scriptures -- those "words of the wise and their dark sayings." Pro 1:6 The Scriptures, saith one, are both text and gloss; one place opens another; one place hath that plainly, that another delivers darkly. The Rabbis have one saying, That there is a mountain of sense hangs upon every apex of the word of God; and another they have, Nulla est obiectio in lege quae non habet solutionem in latere - i.e., There is not any doubt in the law but may be resolved by some other text. Parallel scriptures cast a mutual light one upon another; and is there not a thin veil laid over the word, which is more rarefied by reading, and at last wholly worn away? A friend, says Chrysostom, that is acquainted with his friend, will get out the meaning of a letter or phrase which another could not that is a stranger; so it is in the Scripture.