Verse 5: 'And would that you kept silent, that you might be reckoned wise!' 35. Silence is useful for concealing folly. — Just as, when the door is closed in a house, it is not known what limbs lie hidden within, so very often a fool, if he keeps silent, is concealed as to whether he be wise or foolish — provided, however, that no other works come forth which speak the mind even of one who is silent. The holy man, therefore, seeing his friends wishing to appear what they were not, admonished them to keep silence, lest they be able to appear what they were. Whence also through Solomon it is said: 'A fool, if he keep silence, shall be counted wise' (Prov. 17:28).
But because the fool, when he speaks, by this — that he brings forth his own opinions — is not able to weigh the words of the wise, rightly, after he had enjoined silence, he further adds: