A soothing tongue is a tree of life, But perversion in it crushes the spirit.
Parallel translations
- WEB A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but deceit in it crushes the spirit.
- KJV A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
- BSB A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
- NKJV A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
- NLT Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.
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
Gentle, healing speech is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. Words give life or do deep harm.
Overview
This proverb pictures wholesome, soothing words as life-giving, like the tree of life, while perverse speech breaks the spirit. It underscores the immense power of the tongue for good or ill. The healing word reflects the ministry of Christ, whose words bring life and restoration to the weary (Matthew 11:28-29).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 16:24Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
- Prov 12:18There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
- Prov 18:8The words of a gossip are like dainty morsels: they go down into a person’s innermost parts.
- Prov 3:18She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Happy is everyone who retains her.
- Mal 4:2But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.
- Prov 18:14A man’s spirit will sustain him in sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?
- Rev 2:7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.
- Ps 109:22for I am poor and needy. My heart is wounded within me.
- Ps 52:2–4Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
- Prov 26:22The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, they go down into the innermost parts.
- 1 Tim 6:3If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness,
- Gen 3:22–24Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”
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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 15:4 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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