The Tongue of the Righteous Is Silver
17 He is in the way of life who heeds correction, but he who forsakes reproof leads others astray. 18 He who hides hatred has lying lips. He who utters a slander is a fool. 19 In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely. 20 The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth. 21 The lips of the righteous feed many, but the foolish die for lack of understanding. 22 Yahweh’s blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it. 23 It is a fool’s pleasure to do wickedness, but wisdom is a man of understanding’s pleasure. 24 What the wicked fear will overtake them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted. 25 When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more; but the righteous stand firm forever. 26 As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him. 27 The fear of Yahweh prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. 28 The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hope of the wicked will perish. 29 The way of Yahweh is a stronghold to the upright, but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity. 30 The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land. 31 The mouth of the righteous produces wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. 32 The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked is perverse.
Half of this run is about the mouth, and its most practical saying is that the quantity of words is itself the problem.
Speech is the subject of nine verses out of sixteen here, and the collection approaches it from several sides at once. Lips that hide hatred are called lying lips, which classes silence as a form of speech when it is used to conceal. The man who spreads slander is called a fool rather than a villain, which is the book's usual way of saying that the conduct is against the speaker's own interest.
The sharpest observation is quantitative: In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely. Nothing is said here about the content. The claim is that volume alone produces fault, because a man who talks enough will eventually say the thing he should not have. That is a different argument from the usual counsel about honesty, and it is harder to evade.
Against that stand the verses about speech that feeds. The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver, and the lips of the righteous feed many. The second is the more striking. Feeding is what a household does daily and nobody notices, and words are described as doing it — which sets the standard for the restrained lips of the earlier verse. What is being asked for is not silence but words that nourish somebody.
One verse in the middle of the run addresses wealth again and adds a clause the rest of the book keeps in view: Yahweh's blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it. The final phrase does the work. Money honestly gained is not being contrasted with poverty; it is being contrasted with money that arrives with something attached to it.
And the sluggard reappears in an image nobody forgets: As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him. Both comparisons are physical irritations rather than injuries — the wince and the watering eye. The lazy man in this book is rarely described as wicked. He is described as a small, constant, unbearable friction to everyone who depends on him.
settled What this mark means