14 and fools multiply words. No one knows what is coming- who can tell someone else what will happen after them?
14 A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him?
14 Fools talk way too much, Chattering stuff they know nothing about.
14 A fool also multiplies words. No man knows what is to be; Who can tell him what will be after him?
14 they chatter on and on. No one really knows what is going to happen; no one can predict the future.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:14
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:11-15
(Read Ecclesiastes 10:11-15)
There is a practice in the East, of charming serpents by music. The babbler's tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison; and contradiction only makes it the more violent. We must find the way to keep him gentle. But by rash, unprincipled, or slanderous talk, he brings open or secret vengeance upon himself. Would we duly consider our own ignorance as to future events, it would cut off many idle words which we foolishly multiply. Fools toil a great deal to no purpose. They do not understand the plainest things, such as the entrance into a great city. But it is the excellency of the way to the heavenly city, that it is a high-way, in which the simplest wayfaring men shall not err, Isaiah 25:8. But sinful folly makes men miss that only way to happiness.