Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 10:31
The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out.
31. bringeth forth ] as a tree its leaves or fruit: “ buddeth with,” R.V. marg.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Bringeth forth … – As a tree full of life and sap brings forth its fruit. So the froward tongue is like a tree that brings forth evil and not good fruit; it shall be cut down. The abuse of Gods gift of speech will lead ultimately to its forfeiture. There shall, at last, be the silence of shame and confusion.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 10:31
The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom.
Piety a peculiar ornament to the aged
I. Who may properly be called old people? Old and young are relative terms, and admit of different significations. Children always think their parents are old. They are old who have grey hairs here and there upon them. The distinction in ages has always been considered as an important distinction by all mankind, who have marked it by some peculiar symptoms or visible effects which the different periods of life produce on the body or on the mind. God leaves it to every individual to judge for himself when the precepts to the young bind him, and when the precepts to the old bind him. Every one should judge justly.
II. What is to be understood by the piety of old people? It is called their righteousness. Righteousness is often used in Scripture to denote holiness in heart and life. Righteousness is true holiness, which is the moral excellence of all moral beings, and the essence of all vital piety in mankind. The piety of old people implies two things.
1. Their cordial belief in the great truths of the gospel. All true piety is founded on the knowledge, the belief, and the love of the great and peculiar truths of the gospel.
2. The practice of the duties, as well as the belief of the doctrines, of the gospel. It is generally true that aged Christians have lived a long time in the way of holiness and obedience to the Divine commands. The promises of the gospel are expressly made to those who overcome, to those who continue in well-doing, and to those who endure unto the end. Internal piety always produces external obedience to the precepts of the gospel. Though the oldest Christians never arrive at sinless perfection in this life, yet they generally grow in grace as they grow in years. Though the piety of the young and that of the old are essentially alike, yet the piety of the aged has a specific and superior excellence.
III. In what respects is the piety of the aged their peculiar ornament? Piety adorns the hoary head, and spreads a peculiar beauty over the aged.
1. Their piety appears with peculiar purity. Through the sanctified discipline of a life-experience. Aged piety is tried, purified, refined piety.
2. Their piety hides the infirmities and imperfections which are peculiar to their age. They often become more amiable in their age than they were in their full vigour and activity.
3. Their piety renders them useful, when they would otherwise be useless and burdensome to the world. They are still capable of serving God and their generation, by their examples, their instructions, their admonitions, and their prayers. The pious examples and instructions of aged parents are often tenfold more valuable to their families than all the wealth and respectability they can bestow upon them.
4. Their piety makes them happy in themselves and pleasant to others.
Improvement.
1. There are many more old people than are usually reckoned such.
2. They ought always to be treated with respect.
3. The want of piety is a peculiar blemish in the character of the aged.
4. Aged saints have great reason to be thankful for what God has done for them. (N. Emmons, D..D.)
The speech of the righteous and the wicked compared
Solomon attaches great importance to the power of the tongue to work good or ill.
I. The speech of the good man is valuable, that of the other is worthless. Solomon brings the heart and the tongue into comparison, rather than the tongue of each, to express the idea that speech is always the outcome and exponent of the heart.
II. The speech of the good man is nourishing, that of the other is killing. How one soul can nourish and invigorate another by the language of truth and love. The spiritual destroyer of humanity makes corrupt words his wings to bear him through the world.
III. The speech of the good man is wise, that of the other is foolish. The words of him whose intellect is under the teachings of God, and whose heart is in vital sympathy with Him, are wise words. The policies propounded by the wicked may seem wise at first, but time always exposes their folly, and brings its disciples to confusion and shame.
IV. The speech of the good man is acceptable, that of the other is perverse. The words of truth are always acceptable to God, as they are also to all thoughtful and candid men. There is a frowardness in the utterances of the wicked that is distasteful to all consciences, and repugnant to the heart of God and the good. What are the elements of good moral speech? Sincerity and purity. By sincerity is meant the strict correspondence of the language with the sentiments of the heart. By purity is meant the strict correspondence of those sentiments with the principles of everlasting right. (Homilist.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 31. The froward tongue shall be cut out.] This probably alludes to the punishment of cutting out the tongue for blasphemy, treasonable speeches, profane swearing, or such like. The tunge of schrewis schal perishen. – Old MS. Bible. Were the tongue of every shrew or scold to be extracted, we should soon have much less noise in the world.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Bringeth forth, freely, and abundantly, and constantly, as the earth or a tree bring forth their proper fruit, as the word properly signifies.
Wisdom; wise counsels, by which he directeth and secureth himself and others.
Shall be cut out, because it bringeth forth not wisdom, but folly and wickedness.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. bringeth forthliterally,”germinates” as a plant.
froward(ComparePro 2:12; Pro 2:14).
cut offas anunproductive plant.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom,…. As the earth brings forth its increase, and a tree brings forth its fruit; hence speech is called the fruit of the lips; wisdom is good fruit; a good man is comparable to the fruitful earth, and to a good tree; whose mouth brings forth wise things in abundance, which are very pleasant and profitable; not worldly wisdom, much less devilish; not merely natural wisdom, but spiritual and evangelical; see Ps 37:30;
but the froward tongue shall be cut out; or “cut down” z; as an unprofitable tree, which brings forth nothing but perverse things; things contrary to God and good men, to truth and right reason, to the light of nature, the law of God, and Gospel of Christ. Such “a tongue of perversities” a, as it may be rendered, that brings forth blasphemies against God, his tabernacle and his saints, as the tongue of antichrist does, deserves to be cut out, as the tongue of a blasphemer.
z “succidetur”, Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Gejerus. a “lingua perversitatum”, Montanus, Junius & Tremeilius, Gejerus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
For the third time the favourite theme already handled in three appendixes is taken up:
The mouth of the righteous bringeth forth wisdom,
And the tongue of falsehood shall be rooted up.
Regarding the biblical comparison of thoughts with branches, and of words with flowers and fruits, vid., my Psychol. p. 181; and regarding the root (with its weaker ), to swell up and to spring up (to well, grow, etc.), vid., what is said in the Comm. on Genesis on , and in Isaiah on . We use the word of that which sprouts or grows, and of that which causes that something sprout; but also may, after the manner of verbs of being full (Pro 3:10), of flowing (Gesen. 138, 1, Anm. 2), take the object accus. of that from which anything sprouts (Pro 24:31), or which sprouting, it raises up and brings forth (cf. Isa 57:19). The mouth of the righteous sprouts, brings forth (in Psa 37:30, without a figure, , i.e., utters) wisdom, which in all relations knows how to find out that which is truly good, and suitable for the end intended, and happily to unriddle difficult complications. The conception of wisdom, in itself practical (from , to be thick = solid, firm), here gains such contents by the contrast: the tongue – whose character and fruit is falsehood, which has its delight in intentional perversions of fact, and thus increaseth complications ( vid., regarding , Pro 2:12) – is rooted up, whence it follows as regards the mouth of the righteous, that it continues for ever with that its wholesome fruit.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
31 The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out. 32 The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.
Here, as before, men are judged of, and, accordingly, are justified or condemned, by their words, Matt. xii. 37. 1. It is both the proof and the praise of a man’s wisdom and goodness that he speaks wisely and well. A good man, in his discourse, brings forth wisdom for the benefit of others. God gives him wisdom as a reward of his righteousness (Eccl. ii. 26), and he, in gratitude for that gift and justice to the giver, does good with it, and with his wise and pious discourses edifies many. He knows what is acceptable, what discourse will be pleasing to God (for that is it that he studies more than to oblige the company), and what will be agreeable both to the speaker and to the hearers, what will become him and benefit them, and that he will speak. 2. It is the sin, and will be the ruin, of a wicked man, that he speaks wickedly like himself. The mouth of the wicked speaks frowardness, that which is displeasing to God and provoking to those he converses with; and what is the issue of it? Why, the froward tongue shall be cut out, as surely as the flattering one, Ps. xii. 3.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Use of the Tongue
(Pro 10:31-32)
Verse 31 declares that the just bring forth wisdom in their speech (buds of wisdom that expand), but the flow of perversity from wicked tongues shall be stopped, Pro 2:12-15; Pro 6:14; Pro 8:13; Pro 16:28; Pro 16:30; Pro 17:20.
Verse 32 declares that the righteous know and speak what is acceptable, but the wicked speak that which is perverse and distorted, Pro 6:23; Pro 8:13; Mat 12:35-37; Jas 3:6-8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(31) Bringeth forth wisdom.As the fields their increase (Deu. 32:13); hence words are termed the fruit of the lips (Isa. 57:19).
The froward tongue.See above on Pro. 2:12.
Shall be cut out.Comp. Christs warning (Mat. 12:36). Sins of the tongue will be severely judged, because, besides doing mischief to others, they are signs of an evil mind within (Mat. 5:34).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. Bringeth forth Puts forth, blooms or bears; a figure taken from the habit of a fruitful tree.
Froward tongue A tongue of perversities. “Tongue” is used by metonymy for the person, as (Psa 120:3) “Thou false tongue.”
Cut out Or, cut off, like a branch; or, cut up, like a worthless tree. The idea is, that the righteous man, like a wholesome tree, yields fruits of wisdom, (Psa 92:14,) consequently shall be valued and preserved; but the perverter, who turns men from the right, shall be cut down. See Mat 3:10; Mat 7:19.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 31. The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 10:31 The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out.
Ver. 31. The mouth of the just, &c. ] Heb., Buddeth forth, as a fruit tree, to which the tongue is fitly and finely here resembled. Hence speech is called the “fruit of the lips.”
But the froward tongue shall be cut out.
a Nestorii lingua vermibus exesa.
b Speed’s Chron., fol. 572.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
just = righteous, as in verses: Pro 10:30, Pro 10:32.
bringeth forth: i.e. as a plant.
froward. See note on Pro 2:12.
cut out = cut off as unproductive.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 10:31
Pro 10:31
“The mouth of the righteous bringeth forth wisdom; But the perverse tongue shall be cut off.”
An interesting paraphrase here is: “Good people say wise things, but people will stop listening to a person that says things that bring trouble. There is also here a glimpse of ancient brutal punishments in which the tongues of disrespectful servants were actually cut off.
Pro 10:31. The good mouth brings forth good things like praise (Eph 5:4), edifying things (Eph 4:29), and truth (Eph 4:25) while the wicked mouth brings forth just the opposite, for which it will be destroyed.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
mouth: Pro 10:11, Pro 10:13, Pro 10:20, Pro 10:21, Psa 37:30
the froward: Psa 31:18, Psa 63:11, Psa 120:3, Psa 120:4
Reciprocal: Pro 8:13 – the froward Pro 17:20 – and he Pro 18:21 – Death Ecc 10:12 – words Eph 4:29 – that which Jam 1:26 – bridleth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 10:31-32. The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom It freely, abundantly, and constantly brings forth wise counsels, as the earth or a tree brings forth its proper fruit, as the word , here used, properly signifies; but the froward tongue shall be cut off Because it brings forth, not wisdom, but folly and wickedness. The lips of the righteous know Namely, practically, so as to consider and speak; what is acceptable To God and good men, or what is truly worthy of acceptation; for this is opposed to what is froward or wicked in the next clause. Knowledge is here ascribed to the lips, as it is to the hands, Psa 78:72, because they are conducted by knowledge and wisdom.