The Silence of Wisdom: Verbal Restraint and Hebrew Syntax in Proverbs 10:19
בְּרֹ֣ב דְּ֭בָרִים לֹ֣א יֶחְדַּל־פָּ֑שַׁע וְחֹשֵׂ֖ךְ שְׂפָתָ֣יו מַשְׂכִּֽיל׃ (Proverbs 10:19) In the multitude of words transgression will not cease, but the one who restrains his lips is prudent. Proverbs 10:19 is one of the most linguistically elegant maxims in the Book of Proverbs. It presents a concise moral truth through a carefully balanced antithetical parallelism —…