Proverbs 17:7 (BSB)

Eloquent words are unfit for a fool; how much worse are lying lips to a ruler!

From Proverbs 17. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 17:7

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 17:7: Two things are here represented as very absurd: 1. That men of no repute should be dictators. What can be more unbecoming than for fools, who are known to have little sense and discretion, to pretend to that which is above them and which they were never cut out for?
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 17:7: Excellent speech becometh not a fool,.... A wicked man. Eloquence, or a sublime grand way of speaking, a copiousness and fluency of expression, become not such; because hereby he may be capable of doing more mischief; or such a style is unsuitable to the subject of his discourse, which is nothing but folly and wickedness.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 17:7: Excellent speech--(Compare Margin). Such language as ill suits a fool, as lying (ought to suit) a prince (Pro 16:12-13).
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 17:7: Pro 17:7 7 It does not become a fool to speak loftily, How much less do lying lips a noble! As at Isa 32:5., נבל and נדיב are placed opposite to one another; the latter is the nobly magnanimous man, the former the man who thinks foolishly and acts profligately, whom it does not become to use lofty words, who thereby makes the impression of...