Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 10:13
The beginning of his talk is folly, and the end of his speech is evil madness.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The sage addresses a general audience in Ecclesiastes 10, describing the speech pattern of a fool immediately after contrasting him with a wise man in verse 12.
The words — The text highlights סִכְל֑וּת (sikh.Lut), meaning "folly," and הוֹלֵל֖וּת (ho.le.Lut), meaning "madness," to mark the progression from the opening of the fool's speech to its conclusion.
The thread — This trajectory of degrading speech appears in Proverbs 29:9, where disputes with fools end in raving without resolution, and parallels the confrontations recorded in 1 Samuel 25:10 and Judges 14:15.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that foolish speech inevitably degrades into destructive behavior, requiring readers to evaluate conversations by their trajectory rather than their opening.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 25:10 But Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants these days are breaking away from their masters.
- Proverbs 29:9 If a wise man goes to court with a fool, there will be raving and laughing with no resolution.
- Judges 14:15 So on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”
- 1 Samuel 20:26 Saul said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.”
- 1 Samuel 22:7 Then Saul said to his servants, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Is the son of Jesse giving all of you fields and vineyards and making you commanders of thousands or hundreds?
- 1 Samuel 22:16 But the king replied, “You will surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house!”
- 2 Samuel 19:41 Soon all the men of Israel came to the king and asked, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and bring the king and his household across the Jordan, together with all of David’s men?”
- 2 Kings 6:27 He answered, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?”
- 2 Kings 6:31 He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”
- Matthew 2:7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and learned from them the exact time the star had appeared.