At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: And he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
Proverbs 17:28
We have a proverb in English that points in the same general direction as this one. “It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.”
The principle is that silence can be constructive and helpful. Notice that this proverb says that the silent fool can be “spotted” some wisdom. Not every fool looks like a fool. We can be credited with wisdom and understanding that we don’t actually have if we only have sense enough to keep quiet.
Moreover it is hard to learn while you are talking. It is difficult to observe what other people are doing, or how they are reacting, when you are trying to think of what you were going to say next.
Even a fool, when he is quiet, can be credited with wisdom, and he might even learn something in the meantime.
Because folly is bound up in the heart of a child (Prov. 22:15), this is one of the reasons why children need to be taught the discipline of silence in company. Sometimes the parents of a verbally precocious child take more pleasure from that fact than they ought to. Where words are many, sin is not absent (Prov. 10:19), and consequently it is not wise to allow someone who is not yet wise simply to chatter on.
Even a child might be thought wise if he knows enough to keep quiet. And unlike the thoroughbred fool, his folly is not a permanent condition, which means that as he keeps his silence, he can learn to observe what is going on. And by means of that observation, he is in a position to learn wisdom.
