Proverbs 15:4
A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
BSB
ASV
A gentle tongue is a tree of life; But perverseness therein is a breaking of the spirit.
KJV
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life,.... A tongue that delivers out salutary instructions, wholesome advice and counsel; a "healing tongue" (w), as it may be rendered, which pacifies contending parties, and heals the divisions between them; to have the benefit of such a man's company and conversation is like being in paradise. Such is the tongue of a Gospel minister, which delivers out the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ; sound speech and doctrines, which cannot be condemned; healing truths to wounded consciences, such as peace, pardon, righteousness, and atonement by the blood of Christ.
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life - Here again is an allusion to the paradisiacal tree, עץ חיים ets chaiyim, “the tree of lives.”
A wholesome tongue--(Compare Margin), pacifying and soothing language. tree of life-- (Pr 3:18; 11:30). perverseness therein--cross, ill-natured language. breach . . . spirit--(compare Isa 65:14, Hebrew), grieves, instead of appeasing.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Malachi 4:2“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.
leads to
Nevertheless, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal its people and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.
The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD binds…
because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the Dawn will visit us from on high,
Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Through
Proverbs 16:24Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
leads to
Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.
Through
Proverbs 12:18Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
leads to
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
