4 A healed tongue `is' a tree of life, And perverseness in it -- a breach in the spirit.
A tree of life she `is' to those laying hold on her, And whoso is retaining her `is' happy.
A rash speaker is like piercings of a sword, And the tongue of the wise is healing.
And Jehovah God saith, `Lo, the man was as one of Us, as to the knowledge of good and evil; and now, lest he send forth his hand, and have taken also of the tree of life, and eaten, and lived to the age,' -- Jehovah God sendeth him forth from the garden of Eden to serve the ground from which he hath been taken; yea, he casteth out the man, and causeth to dwell at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubs and the flame of the sword which is turning itself round to guard the way of the tree of life.
Mischiefs doth thy tongue devise, Like a sharp razor, working deceit. Thou hast loved evil rather than good, Lying, than speaking righteousness. Selah. Thou hast loved all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.
The words of a tale-bearer `are' as self-inflicted wounds, And they have gone down `to' the inner parts of the heart.
The spirit of a man sustaineth his sickness, And a smitten spirit who doth bear?
if any one be teaching otherwise, and do not consent to sound words -- those of our Lord Jesus Christ -- and to the teaching according to piety,
The words of a tale-bearer `are' as self-inflicted wounds, And they have gone down `to' the inner parts of the heart.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Proverbs 15
Commentary on Proverbs 15 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
We take these verses together as forming a group which begins with a proverb regarding the good and evil which flows from the tongue, and closes with a proverb regarding the treasure in which blessing is found, and that in which no blessing is found.
Proverbs 15:1
1 A soft answer turneth away wrath,
And a bitter word stirreth up anger.
In the second line, the common word for anger ( אף , from the breathing with the nostrils, Proverbs 14:17) is purposely placed, but in the first, that which denotes anger in the highest degree ( חמה from יחם , cogn. חמם , Arab. hamiya , to glow, like שׁנה from ישׁן ): a mild, gentle word turns away the heat of anger ( excandescentiam ), puts it back, cf. Proverbs 25:15. The Dagesh in רּך follows the rule of the דחיק , i.e. , of the close connection of a word terminating with the accented eh, aah, ah with the following word ( Michlol 63b). The same is the meaning of the Latin proverb:
Frangitur ira gravis
Quando est responsio suavis