Proverbs 18:20

The word for brother, ʼâch, means a brother, and in Israel it reached beyond a sibling to close kinsmen, members of the same tribe and those bound by covenant. A person’s identity and security were bound up with these ties, so a wrong done inside them touched his honour, his standing and his whole well-being. The closer the bond, the deeper the hurt when it breaks.

The word behind “offended” is pâshaʻ, from a root meaning to break away from rightful authority, to rebel or transgress. It speaks of a serious wrong, a breach of trust within a bond that should have held. The brother in this proverb has been sinned against, and that is why his hurt runs so deep and lasts so long.

Verse 20 pictures speech as a crop that the speaker eats. The “belly”, beṭen, is the belly and especially the womb, and here a full belly stands for a person fed and content, his inner life and desires as well as his body. The “fruit”, pᵉrîy, is what something produces, its natural outcome. The “increase”, tᵉbûwʼâh, is the yield of a field, the produce a farmer brings in. In a farming people the picture was plain to everyone: what you plant is what you harvest, and what you harvest is what you eat.

The verb “satisfied”, sâbaʻ, means to be sated, to have enough and more, with food or with experience. “Shall he be filled” in the second line is the same verb, and the second line says again in other words what the first has said, with “lips” standing for the whole of a person’s speech. So the words a man speaks come back to fill him. Good words bring a good harvest of trust, friendship and peace, and harmful words bring a bitter one. Either way he eats his fill.

This is the same law of sowing and reaping that Paul states: “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Proverbs says it about speech more than once. A man is satisfied by the fruit of his mouth just as he is repaid for the work of his hands (Proverbs 12:14), and he who guards his mouth keeps his life (Proverbs 13:3). Jesus says that by our words we will be justified and by our words condemned (Matthew 12:37).

Verse 21 states the matter at its fullest. In Hebrew the tongue holds death and life in its yâd, its hand. The hand stands for control, power and means, and “by the hand of” someone marks the one through whom a thing is done. The lâshôwn is the tongue, and the word is used for speech and language as well. So the tongue is the means by which death or life comes.

“Death”, mâveth, takes in ruin of every kind: broken relationships, despair, destruction and condemnation as well as the end of the body. “Life”, chay, takes in health, blessing, healing and reconciliation as well as being alive. Proverbs speaks of both sides again and again. “There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health” (Proverbs 12:18). In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin (Proverbs 10:19), and a wholesome tongue is a tree of life (Proverbs 15:4). James calls the tongue “a fire, a world of iniquity” and says that no man can tame it (James 3:5–8), and Jesus warns that we will give account in the day of judgment for every idle word (Matthew 12:36–37).

In Israel a spoken word bound the one who spoke it. Oaths, blessings, curses and covenants were made aloud, and a king’s decree, a prophet’s message, a parent’s blessing or a judge’s verdict could change the course of a life. A person’s good name was built or lost in conversation among neighbours who knew one another well. The proverb was spoken to people who already knew how much hung on a word.

Speech has carried this weight from the beginning. God’s first recorded words were “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), and the fall of mankind came through the serpent’s lying words to the woman (Genesis 3:4–5). We are made in the image of the God who speaks, and he has trusted us with speech and holds us to account for how we use it. Paul tells believers to let no corrupt communication come out of their mouths, only what builds others up and gives grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29).

These proverbs come to their fullest meaning in Jesus Christ. He is the Word through whom all things were made (John 1:3), and that Word was made flesh (John 1:14). Every word from his mouth was true and full of life. He said, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63), and Peter answered him, “thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes (Matthew 7:29). He forgave sins by his word (Mark 2:10), commanded unclean spirits and they obeyed him (Mark 1:27), and called Lazarus out of the grave with a word (John 11:43–44). Death and life truly were in the power of his tongue. The water he gives satisfies so that whoever drinks it will never thirst (John 4:14), which fills the belly of verse 20 in a way nothing else can.

The fortress of verse 19 points to the gospel as well. Our sin and hostility toward God stood between us and him like a strong city that no human effort could take. God came to us in Christ, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), who bore our offences on the cross and broke down the wall that divided us, for he is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). Reconciled to God, we are given the power and the pattern for being reconciled with one another.

The Spirit now gives believers tongues that carry life to others: “Holding forth the word of life” (Philippians 2:16) and letting our speech be “alway with grace, seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6).

These three proverbs show us a God who takes words seriously, because he is himself the God who speaks and whose word gives life. He has given us the same gift in a small measure, and he has built his world so that our words return to us. The tongue that can shut a brother behind the bars of a fortress can also speak the soft answer that turns away wrath and the wise word that heals.

The same God has already done in Christ what verse 19 calls harder than taking a strong city. He came to those who were set against him and won them back at the cost of his Son, so that the gospel itself is the great example of a breach healed. Every believer who has been reconciled to God has tasted the fruit of the word of life, and is given that word to speak to others.