I’d like to propose a new translation of Proverbs 18:21. Most English translations read something like the ESV, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Taken this way, the second half of the verse uses the pronoun “it” and “its” to refer back to the tongue. And I think that’s wrong, for at least three reasons. I’ll offer my proposed translation, followed by my reasoning.
The Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) reads:
1 מָ֣וֶת וְ֭חַיִּים בְּיַד־לָשׁ֑וֹן וְ֝אֹהֲבֶ֗יהָ יֹאכַ֥ל פִּרְיָֽהּ׃
“Death and life are in the tongue’s hand; but as for the one who loves her, he will eat her fruit.”
Reason number one. In Hebrew, the pronoun translated “it” and “its” is actually a feminine pronoun, suffixed as the direct object of the participle “loves” and as the possessive pronoun of “fruit.” Grammatically speaking, the feminine pronoun cannot refer to the tongue, because “tongue” is a masculine noun in Hebrew, and pronouns must match their nouns in gender and number.
Add to this, my second reason for proposing a new translation is the syntax of the second half of this verse is what’s called an “initiator-announcement” clause rather than a verbal clause. When such a clause is used, especially when a “vav” is prefixed to the “initiator”, usually a contrast is intended. So, instead of saying “and” to start the second half of this verse, a contrast word like “but” should be used. Thus, a further separation between the two halves of this verse is intended by the author than what English translations render.
To who or what, then, does the “her” refer? I would argue lady wisdom, or wisdom personified, is the “her” to which our proverb speaks. My third reason. Looking back at Proverbs 4:6, we find the first instance of “her” being suffixed to the verb “love,” and in that verse “her” clearly refers to wisdom. “Do not forsake her and she will guard you, love her (אֱהָבֶ֥הָ) and she will deliver you.” I believe Solomon wants us to remember what happened in Proverbs 4 when he wrote Proverbs 18, that the book as a whole has a structure and development that must be accounted for when interpreting the individual parts.
Why do all English translations, then, believe the feminine pronoun in the second half of the verse refers to the masculine noun “tongue” in the first half?2 Perhaps some of that is a misunderstanding of the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the OT. The LXX of Proverbs 18:21 reads, “θάνατος καὶ ζωὴ ἐν χειρὶ γλώσσης, οἱ δὲ κρατοῦντες αὐτῆς ἔδονται τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτῆς.”3 I translate this as, “Death and life are in the tongue’s hand, but those who hold onto her will eat her fruits.” The LXX translators kept the Hebrew feminine pronoun in the second half of the verse; they followed the Hebrew closely. They also used the conjunctive δε (but) rather than the more common conjunctive και (and). Thus, they followed the Hebrew closely again and preserved the contrast between the first and second halves of this verse. However, they had no way of getting around the fact that “tongue” in Greek is a feminine noun. And, therefore, grammatically speaking, the “her” in the second half of the verse could legitimately be understood as referring to the “tongue” in the first half. I don’t think that was the intention of the LXX translators, but, alas, it seems like all English translations have followed that misunderstanding of the LXX, which rightly understood the Hebrew.4
At the end of the day, I agree that most people will read Proverbs 18:21 and say, “Okay, I need wisdom so that my mouth brings me more good than trouble, more life than death.” And, that’s right. But not all interpreters make that applicational move. Some see this Proverb as a warning, “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”5 Meanwhile others appear to encourage the use of speech to gain a reward, “What you say can mean life or death. Those who speak with care will be rewarded.”6
You may be asking, so what? And, to be honest, I get that. But here’s why I think the proposed translation matters. First, this translation honors the inspiration of the text, recognizing the grammatical and syntactic features that get missed in most English translations. That could be reason enough. Nevertheless, I believe contrasting the tongue’s “fruit” with wisdom’s fruit encourages the pursuit of wisdom all the more, which is the whole inspired aim of Proverbs. Since there is a contrast between death and life in the tongue’s hand, and the fruit in wisdom’s hand, we must ask, “What does wisdom hold?” I believe the answer can be found in Proverbs 3:16, “For length of days are in her right, and in her left are riches and glory.” What’s the contrast? What’s the proverb getting at? The tongue, left to itself, will feed its users both death and life. Just like eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you can’t get away from tasting both. The tongue’s fruit is a mixture of death and life. Wisdom, however, will only feed you good things: length of days, riches and glory. No death there, just pure, unmixed life. So, pursue wisdom, and you will eat less of the tongue’s mixed fruit and more of wisdom’s good fruit.
- The Lexham Hebrew Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Pr 18:21. ↩︎
- I was pleased to see the Lexham English Bible use the pronoun “her”; however, they add a footnote to “her” that says it refers to the power of the tongue. ↩︎
- Henry Barclay Swete, The Old Testament in Greek: According to the Septuagint (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1909), Pr 18:21. ↩︎
- However, it appears they read the Hebrew verb “grasp” instead of “love.” They are similar in appearance, and this could be accounted for by either a manuscript discrepancy, or a trick of the eyes and misreading of the Hebrew, reading אהזיה instead of אהביה. ↩︎
- Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Pr 18:21.” ↩︎
- The Everyday Bible: New Century Version (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2005), Pr 18:21.. ↩︎
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