Proverbs 18:21
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Context
This proverb stands within a cluster on the tongue and its effects, including warnings about hasty answers and the satisfying or destructive fruit of one's mouth.
What Does Proverbs 18:21 Mean?
Proverbs 18:21 warns that our words carry the power of both death and life, and we will eat the fruit of whichever we love to speak. The verse hands the reader an enormous responsibility by locating life-and-death power in something as ordinary as the tongue. Words can wound, deceive, and destroy, or they can heal, bless, and build up. The same small instrument can ruin a reputation or rescue a discouraged soul.
The second line adds a striking turn: "they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." Those who love the tongue -- who delight in talking, who indulge their speech without restraint -- will have to consume the harvest their words produce, whether bitter or sweet. The image is agricultural: speech is a seed, and every seed yields after its kind. This is not a call to silence but to stewardship. Because words shape relationships, futures, and even our own character, the wise learn to weigh what they say before they say it. The proverb urges the reader to plant carefully, knowing that a future meal of the harvest is certain. Guarded, truthful, gracious speech becomes a way of choosing life.
In the Original Language
The phrase "in the power of" is literally "in the hand of" (be-yad) the tongue. "Tongue" is "lashon," and "fruit" is "peri," the produce or yield that words bring forth.
Cross References
“There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.”
- Proverbs 12:18
“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body.”
- James 3:6
“For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
- Matthew 12:37
Application
Treat your words as seeds with real consequences -- speak truth, encouragement, and grace, knowing you will one day taste the harvest of what you say.