21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue - This may apply to all men. Many have lost their lives by their tongue, and some have saved their lives by it: but it applies most forcibly to public pleaders; on many of their tongues hangs life or death.
Death and life [are] in the power of the tongue: and they that (o) love it shall eat the fruit of it.
(o) By the using the tongue well or evil, comes the fruit of it either good or bad.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,.... Of witnesses, according to the testimony they bear; of judges, according to the sentence they pass; of teachers, according to the doctrine they preach; of all men, who, by their well or ill speaking, bring death or life to themselves and others. Some, by their tongues, by the too free use of them, or falsehood they utter, are the cause of death to themselves and others; and some, by their silence, or by their prudent speech and prevalent intercession, secure or obtain life for themselves and others; yea, judgment at the last day will proceed according to a man's words, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned", Matthew 12:37; the tongue is the instrument either of a great deal of good, or of a great deal of evil;
and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof; that delight to be talkative; that love to use the tongue, whether in a good or in a bad way, shall accordingly be recompensed; shall enjoy the advantages or disadvantages arising from it.
Many a one has caused his own death, or the death of others, by a false or injurious tongue.
Death and life--or, the greatest evil and good.
that love it--that is, the tongue, or its use for good or evil.
eat . . . fruit--(Compare Proverbs 18:19; James 1:19).
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue;
And whoever loveth it shall eat its fruit.
The hand, יד, is so common a metaphor for power, that as here a hand is attributed to the tongue, so e.g., Isaiah 47:14 to the flame, and Psalm 49:16 to Hades. Death and life is the great alternative which is placed, Deuteronomy 30:15, before man. According as he uses his tongue, he falls under the power of death or attains to life. All interpreters attribute, 21b, ואהביה to the tongue: qui eam (linguam) amant vescentur (יאכל, distrib. sing., as Proverbs 3:18, Proverbs 3:35, etc.) fructu ejus. But "to love the tongue" is a strange and obscure expression. He loves the tongue, says Hitzig, who loves to babble. Euchel: he who guards it carefully, or: he who takes care of it, i.e., who applies himself to right discourse. Combining both, Zckler: who uses it much, as εὐλογῶν or κακολογῶν. The lxx translates, οἱ κρατοῦντες αὐτῆς, i.e., אחזיה; but אחז means prehendere and tenere, not cohibere, and the tongue kept in restraint brings forth indeed no bad fruit, but it brings no fruit at all. Why thus? Does the suffix of ואהביה, perhaps like Proverbs 8:17, Chethı̂b, refer to wisdom, which, it is true, is not named, but which lies everywhere before the poet's mind? At Proverbs 14:3 we ventured to make חכמה the subject of 3b. Then 21b would be as a miniature of Proverbs 8:17-21. Or is ואהביה a mutilation of ואהב יהוה: and he who loves Jahve (Psalm 97:10) enjoys its (the tongue's) fruit?
Death and life - Are brought upon men by, the good or bad use of their tongues. Lovest - That love much talking.
*More commentary available at chapter level.