Bible Strands
Proverbs 12:18
Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — An unnamed wisdom teacher (traditionally Solomon) addresses a student within a series of antithetical proverbs contrasting the wise and the foolish. The verse sits between two statements on truth versus deceit (Prov 12:17, 12:19), extending the contrast from content to manner of speech.
The words — מַדְקְרוֹת (madqeroth) means "thrusts" or "piercing thrusts," specifying the violent action of a sword rather than merely its presence. מַרְפֵּא (marpe') is a noun for "healing" that carries a therapeutic, restorative sense beyond simple comfort.
The thread — The same contrast between wounding and healing speech recurs in Proverbs 15:4 ("a soothing tongue is a tree of life") and Proverbs 16:24 ("healing to the bones"), while Psalm 57:4 depicts the opposite: tongues as spears and arrows.
Why it lands — The verse forces the reader to treat speech as a physical act with mechanical consequences, not merely a moral one. It asks: before you open your mouth, do you recognize that what comes out can land in someone like a blade?
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
- Proverbs 15:4 A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
- Psalms 57:4 My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Proverbs 10:20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked has little worth.
- James 3:6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
- Psalms 52:2 Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
- Proverbs 4:22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.
- Proverbs 15:7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but not so the hearts of fools.
- Proverbs 25:18 Like a club or sword or sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.
- Proverbs 13:17 A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful envoy brings healing.