Proverbs 10:20

The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
tongue	לְשׁ֣וֹן le.Shon	H3956	the tongue (of man or animals) · noun, common both genders singular construct
just	צַדִּ֑יק tza.Dik	H6662	just · adjective, masculine singular absolute
choice	נִ֭בְחָר Niv.chor	H977	properly · verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
silver	כֶּ֣סֶף Ke.sef	H3701	silver (from its pale color) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
heart	לֵ֖ב lev	H3820	the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct
wicked	רְשָׁעִ֣ים re.sha.'Im	H7563	morally wrong · noun, common masculine plural absolute
worth	כִּמְעָֽט kim.'At	H4592	a little or few (often adverbial or compar.) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continu…
Proverbs 12:18 There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Proverbs 15:4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
Matthew 12:34-35 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imag…
Proverbs 8:19 My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.
Proverbs 16:13 Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 10:20-21

We are here taught how to value men, not by their wealth and preferment in the world, but by their virtue. I. Good men are good for something. Though they may be poor and low in the world, and may not have power and riches to do good with, yet, as long as they have a mouth to speak, that will make them valuable and useful, and upon that account we must honour those that fear the Lord, because out of the good treasure of their heart they bring forth good things. 1. This makes them valuable: The tongue of the just is as choice silver; they are sincere, freed from the dross of guile and evil design. God's words are compared to silver purified (Psa 12:6), for they may be relied on; and such are…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 10:20

Right speech is the fruit of a good heart, but the wicked show theirs to be useless.

John Gill on Proverbs 10:20

The tongue of the just is as choice silver,.... Which utters things precious, pure, pleasant, and profitable; things for worth and value as choice silver; the doctrines of the Gospel, the power of which he has felt upon his heart; the precious promises of it, which have been applied unto him; and the rich experience of grace he has been favoured with: things pure and incorrupt, like silver free from dross; as the doctrines of grace, fetched out of the mines of the sacred Scripture, free from the dross of error, without any human mixture; consistent and all of a piece, and which tend to purity of heart and life; things the reverse of a corrupt communication, nothing filthy and unclean; a pure…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 10:20

20 Choice silver is the tongue of the righteous; But the heart of the godless is little worth. Choice silver is, as Pro 8:19, cf. 10, pure, freed from all base mixtures. Like it, pure and noble, is whatever the righteous speaks; the heart, i.e., the manner of thought and feeling, of the godless is, on the contrary, like little instar nihili, i.e., of little or no worth, Arab. yasway kâlyla (Fl.). lxx: the heart of the godless ἐκλείψει, i.e., ימעט, at first arrogant and full of lofty plans, it becomes always the more dejected, discouraged, empty. But 20a leads us to expect some designation of its worth. The Targ. (according to which the Peshito is to be corrected; vid., Levy's Wrterbuch, i…

The Church Fathers

When I read the Proverbs today, I began with this sentence: "The tongue of the righteous is tried silver." I said, If the tongue of the righteous is choice silver, the tongue of the wicked is most polluted. What is more choice or what is holier than the tongue of a man who uses it to confess and preach God and his Christ and to give him praise, but then also to read his laws and to meditate on them day and night, and also to speak every good word?
— Shenoute the Archimandrite, ON LANGUAGE

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Proverbs, Book of — A collection of moral and philosophical maxims of a wide range of subjects presented in a poetic form. This book sets forth the “philosophy of practical life. It is the sign to us that the Bible does…
Depravity Of Man · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Heart, Character Of The Unrenewed · Of little worth — Of little worth
Silver · Illustrative: Of the tongue of the just — Illustrative: Of the tongue of the just
Speaking · WISDOM IN — WISDOM IN

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Proverbs 10:20

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 10:20-21

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 10:20

John Gill on Proverbs 10:20

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 10:20

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 10:20

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 10:20-21

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 10:20

John Gill on Proverbs 10:20

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 10:20

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 10:20

Rashi on Proverbs 10:20