The Root of the Righteous Yields Fruit
1 Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. 2 A good man shall obtain favor from Yahweh, but he will condemn a man of wicked plans. 3 A man shall not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. 4 A worthy woman is the crown of her husband, but a disgraceful wife is as rottenness in his bones. 5 The thoughts of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful. 6 The words of the wicked are about lying in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them. 7 The wicked are overthrown, and are no more, but the house of the righteous shall stand. 8 A man shall be commended according to his wisdom, but he who has a warped mind shall be despised. 9 Better is he who is little known, and has a servant, than he who honors himself and lacks bread. 10 A righteous man respects the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. 11 He who tills his land shall have plenty of bread, but he who chases fantasies is void of understanding. 12 The wicked desires the plunder of evil men, but the root of the righteous flourishes. 13 An evil man is trapped by sinfulness of lips, but the righteous shall come out of trouble. 14 A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth. The work of a man’s hands shall be rewarded to him.
The bluntest sentence in the book opens this run, and the rest of it keeps returning to what is underground.
Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. The collection rarely uses a word that plain, and the plainness is the point. The two halves are not describing a scholar and a dropout. They describe two responses to being told you are wrong. The book identifies that single reflex as the whole difference between a man who will learn anything and a man who will not.
Roots then run through the passage. The root of the righteous shall not be moved. The root of the righteous flourishes. A root is the part of a plant nobody sees. It is what decides whether the plant survives weather. Set against it is the wicked man who shall not be established, a word from building rather than from growing. One is planted and one is propped.
Two domestic sayings sit in the middle of the run. A worthy woman is the crown of her husband, but a disgraceful wife is as rottenness in his bones — an outward honor against an inward decay, and the second image is the more serious, since bone rot is not survivable and not visible. The other is easy to pass over and is one of the most humane verses in the book: A righteous man respects the life of his animal. How a man treats a beast that cannot complain is offered as evidence about him. And the contrast supplied is not cruelty to animals but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. The best such a man can manage is still hard.
One saying takes aim at appearances with some wit. Better is he who is little known, and has a servant, than he who honors himself and lacks bread. A modest man with a small household is set against a self-important one with an empty table, and the second is recognizable in any century.
The run closes on the mouth again, and on the reciprocity the collection keeps asserting. An evil man is trapped by the sinfulness of his own lips. And a man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth — words treated as a crop, planted by the speaker and eventually eaten by him.
settled What this mark means