Proverbs 10:31 Meaning and Explanation
“The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Talk is cheap, we say, and Proverbs would half agree. Words are easy to produce and hard to take back, which is why this chapter returns to the mouth again and again. The saying here asks a searching question of anyone who speaks in public or private: what actually grows out of the things we say?
Righteous speech grows wisdom the way a healthy tree bears fruit. Twisted speech has a limited future; the perverse tongue is finally silenced. Character shows in what our words produce.
The Context of Proverbs 10:31
Verses 18 through 32 of this chapter cluster heavily around speech. The tongue of the just is compared to choice silver in verse 20, the lips of the righteous are said to feed many in verse 21, and verse 19 warns about a multitude of words. Verse 31 stands in the closing pair, followed immediately by verse 32 on lips that know what is acceptable. Solomon is credited with the collection at verse 1. The sayings address a general audience of learners, with no single narrative scene behind them.
What Does Proverbs 10:31 Mean?
Bringeth forth translates an agricultural picture: the mouth of the just sprouts wisdom the way soil sends up growth. Wisdom appears here as something produced, an outcome visible to others. The second half turns to a froward tongue, froward being an older English word for twisted or perverse, a tongue bent away from straight speech. Shall be cut out is severe language, and Proverbs uses such phrases for a settled end rather than for a specific punishment. The two halves compare futures. One kind of speech keeps yielding; the other reaches a point where it stops.
Within the chapter's long meditation on words, verse 31 works as a summary. Earlier lines call the righteous mouth a well of life (verse 11) and choice silver (verse 20), images of supply and value, and this verse adds fruitfulness. Behind all three lies a conviction that runs through Proverbs: speech flows from the heart, so a tongue reveals what a person has become. The book's larger framework of two ways, life and destruction, stands behind the second half. Wisdom in Scripture is never only clever technique; it is skill in living rightly before God, and it shows up audibly.
Jesus took up both halves of this saying in Matthew 12:33-37. He set a tree beside its fruit, traced speech to the abundance of the heart, and warned that we will give account for idle words. James 3 then works the theme out at length, holding up a fountain and a fig tree as tests of what a tongue really is. Christ's own speech supplies the pattern the proverb describes, since crowds marveled at the gracious words that came from His mouth in Luke 4:22. Wisdom bore fruit audibly in Him, and those who listen still find it there.
Proverbs 10:31 in the Original Language
nuv (נוּב), 'bringeth forth' -- a Hebrew verb meaning to bear fruit or yield increase, used elsewhere of produce ripening on a plant. Applied to a mouth it pictures wise words growing the way fruit grows on a healthy tree, out of what the root has taken in.
Bible Verses Related to Proverbs 10:31
“The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.”
- Psalm 37:30
“The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.”
- Proverbs 10:11
“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
- Matthew 12:34
“Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.”
- James 3:12
Where Proverbs 10:31 Echoes in Scripture
Psalm 37:30 states the first half of this proverb almost word for word, saying that the mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom and his tongue talks of judgment. The next verse there explains the source: the law of God is in his heart. That pairing supplies what Proverbs leaves implied. Wise speech grows from a life saturated in what God has said, and Psalm 37 places the whole picture inside a psalm about the enduring future of the meek.
How to Apply Proverbs 10:31 Today
A practical test follows from the fruit image: we can ask what our words have actually produced in the last week. Did anyone leave a conversation with us steadier, clearer, better able to face something hard? Fruit takes time, so the honest work happens upstream, in what we read, watch, and turn over privately. Filling the heart with good things gives the mouth something worth yielding. Where our speech has twisted lately, into sarcasm that wounds or half-truths that protect us, a direct apology and a change of habit are within reach today.
Reflection & Prayer
If someone recorded a week of our conversations, what would they say we mostly care about? That question can be sat with slowly. A prayer for the day: Lord, plant Your word deep enough in me that wisdom grows there on its own. Guard my tongue when it wants to twist, and let my speech feed the people around me. Amen.