The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver, The heart of the wicked is worth little.
Parallel translations
- WEB The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth.
- KJV The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is 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.
- 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 one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
- Gen 6:5Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
- Jer 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
- Matt 12:34–35You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
- Prov 16:13Righteous lips are the delight of kings. They value one who speaks the truth.
- Prov 23:7for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
- Gen 8:21Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.
- Prov 8:19My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold; my yield than choice silver.
- Prov 15:4A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but deceit in it crushes the spirit.
- Prov 25:11–12A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings 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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