Proverbs 13:2

13:2 From the fruit of his speech ¹  a person eats good things, ² 

but the faithless ³  desire ⁴  the fruit of violence. ⁵ 

Proverbs 18:20-21

18:20 From the fruit of a person’s mouth ⁶  his stomach is satisfied, ⁷ 

with the product of his lips is he satisfied.

18:21 Death and life are in the power ⁸  of the tongue, ⁹ 

and those who love its use ¹⁰  will eat its fruit.

Psalms 63:5

63:5 As if with choice meat ¹¹  you satisfy my soul. ¹² 

My mouth joyfully praises you, ¹³ 

[13:2]  ¹ tn Heb “lips” (so NIV); KJV “mouth.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause for what the lips produce: speech.

[13:2]  ² tn Heb “he eats [what is] good.”

[13:2]  ³ tn Heb “the desire of the faithless.” The noun “faithless” is a subjective genitive: “the faithless desire….”

[13:2]  ⁴ tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) has a broad range of meanings, and here denotes “appetite” (e.g., Ps 17:9; Prov 23:3; Eccl 2:24; Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; BDB 660 s.v. 5.c) or (2) “desire” (e.g., Deut 12:20; Prov 13:4; 19:8; 21:10; BDB 660 s.v. 6.a).

[13:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “violence.” The phrase “the fruit of” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the parallelism. The term “violence” is probably a metonymy of cause: “violence” represents what violence gains – ill-gotten gains resulting from violent crime. The wicked desire what does not belong to them.

[18:20]  ⁶ sn Two images are used in this proverb: the fruit of the mouth and the harvest of the lips. They are synonymous; the first is applied to the orchard and the second to the field. The “mouth” and the “lips” are metonymies of cause, and so both lines are speaking about speech that is productive.

[18:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “his midst.” This is rendered “his stomach” because of the use of שָׂבַע (sava’, “to be satisfied; to be sated; to be filled”), which is usually used with food (cf. KJV, ASV “belly”).

[18:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the hand of.”

[18:21]  ⁹ 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.

[18:21]  ¹⁰ 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).

[63:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like fat and fatness.”

[63:5]  ¹² tn Or “me.”

[63:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “and [with] lips of joy my mouth praises.”