The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.
Parallel translations
- WEB The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth.
- BSB The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked has little worth.
- NKJV The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; The heart of the wicked is worth little.
- NASB The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver, The heart of the wicked is worth little.
- NLT The words of the godly are like sterling silver; the heart of a fool is worthless.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is worth little. Righteous speech is precious; the wicked heart is empty.
Overview
The valuable words of the righteous are compared to choice silver, while the wicked's inner life is deemed of little worth. The contrast links the value of one's speech to the state of one's heart, for the mouth speaks from the heart's abundance (Luke 6:45). What we say reveals what we truly are.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 12:18There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
- Gen 6:5And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
- Jer 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
- Matt 12:34–35O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
- Prov 16:13Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.
- Prov 23:7For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
- Gen 8:21And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
- Prov 8:19My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.
- Prov 15:4A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
- Prov 25:11–12A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 10:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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