Translation commentary on Proverbs 18:21

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue”: This line is literally “Death and life [are] in the hand of the tongue,” where “hand” is an image or idiom representing power. This line repeats the idea expressed in verse 20, that is, the consequences of what a person says may mean the death or life of someone. In English the natural order for the opening words is “life and death”; so New International Version and Revised English Bible express this line as “The tongue has the power of life and death.”

“And those who love it will eat its fruits”: “Those who love it” refers to people who love to talk or express their opinions. “Will eat its fruits” means “will pay the price of their much talking,” “will be faced with the consequences of what they say.” It is not stated whether this will be good or bad, but it is probably a warning that it will be bad. For a model translation see Good News Translation.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

complete verse (Proverbs 18:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 18:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “(The) mouth of a person can deliver/save or destroy people.
    So, one should/must guard his mouth.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The word of the mouth
    decides between life and death.
    So they will have to reap the fruit
    of their own words.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “What you (sing.) are-saying can-save life or can-kill. Therefore if you (sing.) talk-too-much, [you (sing.)] watch-out for you (sing.) will-harvest the fruit of what you (sing.) are-saying.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Words have-capability to be the cause-of-life or cause-of-death, therefore the one who loves to speak, it is necessary that he accept whatever his words produce (verb form of fruit).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “What you say can cause others to be killed or it can cause them to continue to live;
    so those who like to talk a lot must accept the consequences/realize that what they say can cause much harm.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 18:21

18:21

This verse is closely related to 18:20. The first line describes the power of a person’s words to accomplish great good or evil. The second line reminds people who love to talk that they will have to face the consequences.

21a Life and death are in the power of the tongue,

21b and those who love it will eat its fruit.

The verse as a whole is an implied warning that people who talk a lot should be careful what they say.

18:21a

Life and death are in the power of the tongue: In Hebrew, this clause is literally “Death and life are in the hand of the tongue.” The word “hand” is used figuratively here to mean power. It refers to the power or authority of a person’s words to bring about certain consequences. If your language has a different figure of speech with the same meaning, consider using it here.

Life and death: In Hebrew, this word pair occurs in the opposite order (“death and life”). The Berean Standard Bible has changed it to Life and death, because this order is more common in English.

This word pair is used here as a figure of speech. In this figure of speech, the two extremes “life and death” include other good and bad consequences between these two extremes. What a person says can significantly help or harm another person. It can even result in someone’s life being preserved or lost.

the tongue: The word tongue here has the same meaning as the words “mouth” and “lips” in 18:20. It is a figure of speech that refers to the words that a person speaks.

Some other ways to translate this clause are:

Words can bring death or life! (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
What you say can mean life or death. (New Century Version)

18:21b

and those who love it: The phrase those who love it refers here to those who love to use their tongues. In other words, they very much enjoy talking.

will eat its fruit: The phrase will eat its fruit is used here as a figure of speech. It means that those who enjoy talking will experience the consequences of their words, whether good or bad.

Some other ways to translate this clause are:

those who love its use will eat its fruit (NET Bible)
-or-
those who love to talk will reap the consequences (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
You will have to live with the consequences of everything you say. (Good News Translation)

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.