Job 13:5

O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.

Ver. 5. O that you would altogether hold your peace] Heb. In being silent, would be silent: q.d. I thought much of your seven days' silence, Job 2:13, and now I am no less troubled at your speeches. Oh that you had either continued your silence, or else would frame to say something better than silence: for hitherto ye have spoken much, but said little. I could heartily wish, therefore, that you would now stop your mouths, and open your ears, as Job 13:6, that you would be as mute as fishes, since I can hear nothing from you but what speaks you to be mere mutes, ciphers, nullities' as Job 13:4 .

And it should be your wisdom] For "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 .

Pας τις απαιδευτος φρονιμωτατος εστι σιωπων .

As when the door is shut it cannot be seen what is within the house; so the mouth, being shut by silence, the folly that is within lieth undiscovered; and as in glasses and vessels, so in men, the sound which they make showeth whether they be cracked or sound. An ass is known by his ears (saith the Dutch proverb), and so is a fool by his talk. As a bird is known by his note, and a bell by his clapper, so is a man by his discourse. Plutarch tells us, that Megabysus, a nobleman of Persia, coming into Apelles', the painter's, workshop, took upon him to speak something there concerning the art of painting and limning, but he did it so absurdly, that the apprentices jeered him, and the master could not bear with him (Plut. de Tranq.).