Proverbs 15:4

15:4 Speech ¹  that heals ²  is like ³  a life-giving tree, ⁴ 

but a perverse tongue ⁵  breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 16:18

16:18 Pride ⁶  goes ⁷  before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall. ⁸ 

Proverbs 17:19

17:19 The one who loves a quarrel loves transgression; ⁹ 

whoever builds his gate high seeks destruction. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 18:12

18:12 Before destruction the heart ¹¹  of a person is proud,

but humility comes ¹²  before honor. ¹³ 

[15:4]  ¹ tn Heb “a tongue.” The term “tongue” is a metonymy of cause for what is produced: speech.

[15:4]  ² tn Heb “a tongue of healing.” A healing tongue refers to speech that is therapeutic or soothing. It is a source of vitality.

[15:4]  ³ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[15:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “tree of life.”

[15:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “perversion in it.” The referent must be the tongue, so this has been supplied in the translation for clarity. A tongue that is twisted, perverse, or deceitful is a way of describing deceitful speech. Such words will crush the spirit (e.g., Isa 65:14).

[16:18]  ⁶ sn The two lines of this proverb are synonymous parallelism, and so there are parasynonyms. “Pride” is paired with “haughty spirit” (“spirit” being a genitive of specification); and “destruction” is matched with “a tottering, falling.”

[16:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “[is] before destruction.”

[16:18]  ⁸ sn Many proverbs have been written in a similar way to warn against the inevitable disintegration and downfall of pride. W. McKane records an Arabic proverb: “The nose is in the heavens, the seat is in the mire” (Proverbs [OTL], 490).

[17:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the one who loves transgression the one who loves a quarrel.” There is some ambiguity in the first line. The meaning would not differ greatly if either were taken as the subject; but the parallelism suggests that the proverb is about a quarrelsome and arrogant person who loves sin and invites destruction.

[17:19]  ¹² tn Some have taken this second line literally and interpreted it to mean he has built a pretentious house. Probably it is meant to be figurative: The gate is the mouth (the figure would be hypocatastasis) and so to make it high is to say lofty things – he brags too much (e.g., 1 Sam 2:3; Prov 18:12; 29:23); cf. NCV, TEV, NLT. C. H. Toy (Proverbs [ICC], 348) wishes to emend פִּתְחוֹ (pitkho, “his gate”) to פִּיו (piv, “his mouth”), but that is unnecessary since the idea can be obtained by interpretation.

[18:12]  ¹⁶ sn The term “heart” is a metonymy of subject, referring to the seat of the spiritual and intellectual capacities – the mind, the will, the motivations and intentions. Proud ambitions and intentions will lead to a fall.

[18:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[is] before honor”; cf. CEV “humility leads to honor.”

[18:12]  ¹⁸ sn The way to honor is through humility (e.g., Prov 11:2; 15:33; 16:18). The humility and exaltation of Jesus provides the classic example (Phil 2:1-10).