Proverbs 10:31

Proverbs 10:31, in plain English

Righteous people speak words that carry genuine wisdom and help people, but wicked people's twisted speech will eventually be silenced and forgotten.

Why it's here

Solomon returns to the power of words again because he understands they're not neutral — they either build up or tear down. A perverse tongue creates damage, and that kind of speech doesn't ultimately survive or flourish.

Who's speaking

Solomon, speaking to the reality that our words reveal and shape our character.

Where it sits in the story

This echoes the entire biblical emphasis on the tongue's power, culminating in Jesus teaching that what comes out of your mouth reveals what's in your heart. Words matter because they're connected to who we actually are.

The scholarly reading

The righteous person's speech produces wisdom and edification, while the twisted tongue of the wicked is ultimately silenced and destroyed.

Language and setting

The pi tzaddîqîm notia chokhma (mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom) employs agricultural imagery—speech as fruit-bearing—suggesting that words are not mere sound but generative power. The lashon tahor (perverse tongue) appears alongside imagery of excision and removal throughout Scripture, indicating not merely bad speech but speech that violates sacred boundaries. The verb yikkaret (will be cut out) echoes covenant language where the persistent lawbreaker is excised from the community.

Voice

The wisdom teachers, understanding language as a fundamental theological category that participates in either creation or destruction.

Significance

This attains its fullest expression in John's Logos theology—Jesus as the Word made flesh whose speech is simultaneously divine creative power and healing medicine. His teachings constitute wisdom incarnate, while the perverse speech of those who oppose him—the religious authorities' false accusations—leads to their ultimate judgment. The proverb's mechanism becomes Christological: the righteous word-bearer and the rejected truth-speaker.

29The way of the LORD is a refuge to the upright, but destruction awaits those who do evil.

30The righteous will never be shaken, but the wicked will not inhabit the land.

31The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but a perverse tongue will be cut out.

32The lips of the righteous know what is fitting, but the mouth of the wicked is perverse.

Read all of Proverbs 10 — The collection proper begins. Paired contrasts — wise and foolish, righteous and wicked, diligent and lazy — packed into single verses.