Proverbs 18:21

18:21 Death and life are in the power ¹  of the tongue, ² 

and those who love its use ³  will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 22:4

22:4 The reward ⁴  for humility ⁵  and fearing the Lord ⁶ 

is riches and honor and life.

Proverbs 27:27

27:27 And there will be enough goat’s milk for your food, ⁷ 

for the food of your household,

and for the sustenance ⁸  of your servant girls.

¹ tn Heb “in the hand of.”

² sn What people say can lead to life or death. The Midrash on Psalms shows one way the tongue [what is said] can cause death: “The evil tongue slays three, the slanderer, the slandered, and the listener” (Midrash Tehillim 52:2). See J. G. Williams, “The Power of Form: A Study of Biblical Proverbs,” Semeia 17 (1980): 35-38.

³ tn The referent of “it” must be the tongue, i.e., what the tongue says (= “its use”). So those who enjoy talking, indulging in it, must “eat” its fruit, whether good or bad. The expression “eating the fruit” is an implied comparison; it means accept the consequences of loving to talk (cf. TEV).

⁴ tn The Hebrew term עֵקֶב (’eqev, “reward”) is related to the term meaning “heel”; it refers to the consequences or the reward that follows (akin to the English expression “on the heels of”).

⁵ tn “Humility” is used here in the religious sense of “piety”; it is appropriately joined with “the fear of the Lord.” Some commentators, however, make “the fear of the Lord” the first in the series of rewards for humility, but that arrangement is less likely here.

⁶ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord.” This is an objective genitive; the Lord is the object of the fear.

⁷ sn This part of the proverb shows the proper interplay between human labor and divine provision. It teaches people to take care of what they have because it will not last forever.

⁸ tn Heb “life”; KJV, NAB “maintenance”; NRSV “nourishment.”