John Trapp on Job 13:5

Verſe 5. O that you would altogether hold your peace] Heb. In being ſilent, would be ſilent; q. d. I thought much at your ſeven-dayes-ſilence, chap. 2.13. and now I am no leſſe troubled at your ſpeeches. O that you had either continued your ſilence, or elſe would frame to ſay ſomething better then 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 verſe 6. that you would be as mute as fiſhes, ſith I can hear nothing from you but what ſpeaks you to be meer mutes, ciphers, nullities, as verſe 4.

And it ſhould be your wiſedome] For even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wiſe, and he that ſhutteth his lips is eſteemed a man of underſtanding, Prov. 17.28.

[non-Latin text not transcribed]

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, ſheweth whether they be crack'd or ſound. An aſſe 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 Noble man of Perſia, Plut. de tran que . coming into Apelles the Painters work-houſe, took upon him to ſpeak ſomething there concerning the art of painting and limning, but he did it ſo abſurdly, that the prentices jeared him, and the maſter could not bear with him.