Commentary - Proverbs 10:21

Bird's-eye view

This proverb, like so many in this section of the book, is a tightly packed couplet of contrasts. It sets up a stark antithesis between the righteous and the fool, and the central issue is the consequence of their words and their internal state. The righteous man's speech is life-giving, a source of nourishment for many. He is a fountain, not a drain. The fool, on the other hand, is not just unhelpful; he is self-destructing. His end is death, and the cause is a profound internal deficiency, a "lack of heart" or "lack of sense." The proverb teaches us that what comes out of a man's mouth is a direct indicator of his spiritual state, and that spiritual state has ultimate, life-or-death consequences. Words are not mere vibrations in the air; they are food or poison.

At its core, this is a proverb about spiritual economics. The righteous man is a producer; he has a surplus of wisdom from which others can draw. His lips "feed many." The fool is in a state of terminal famine. He has nothing to offer, and the emptiness within him ultimately consumes him. This is not about intellectual capacity but about moral and spiritual orientation. The "heart" in Hebrew thought is the center of the will, the intellect, and the emotions. The fool's problem is not that he is unintelligent, but that his entire inner being is misaligned with the wisdom of God. Therefore, his end is not just unfortunate; it is the necessary and just consequence of his chosen path.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

Proverbs 10 marks a shift in the book. The first nine chapters consist of longer, thematic discourses, personifying Wisdom and Folly as two women calling out to young men. With chapter 10, we begin a long series of short, pithy, two-line proverbs, mostly presenting a contrast. This verse fits perfectly within that structure. It follows a series of comparisons between the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the foolish, touching on themes of wealth, speech, labor, and integrity. For example, the preceding verse says, "The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth" (Prov 10:20). Our verse, 10:21, is a direct and practical outworking of that principle. Because the righteous man's tongue is valuable, it can be used to "feed many." Because the wicked man's heart is worthless, he starves to death for lack of true substance. The theme of speech as a fountain of life or a tool of destruction is central to the entire book of Proverbs.

Key Issues

Life from the Lips, Death from the Heart

In the world God has made, neutrality is a fiction. Every man is either gathering with Christ or scattering abroad. Every tree is either good, and bearing good fruit, or it is corrupt, and bearing corrupt fruit. This proverb applies that unyielding reality to the realm of human character and speech. You are either a source of life or an agent of death, and the test is what comes out of your mouth. But what comes out of the mouth is just an overflow of what is in the heart. So ultimately, the proverb is driving us to an examination of the heart.

The contrast is absolute. On the one side, you have righteousness, lips, feeding, and community ("many"). On the other, you have foolishness, a lack of heart, dying, and isolation (the fool dies alone). This is the great divide that runs through all of Scripture, the path of the wise and the path of the fool, the way of life and the way of death. This proverb is a snapshot of that great drama, played out in the ordinary conversations of everyday life.

Verse by Verse Commentary

21a The lips of the righteous feed many,

The first clause establishes the righteous man as a source of public good. His value is not contained within himself; it overflows to the benefit of the community. The instrument of this benefit is his "lips." This is Hebrew shorthand for his speech, his counsel, his instruction, his encouragement, his warnings. His words have substance. They are not chaff, not empty calories, not poison. They are nourishing food. When people are confused, his words bring clarity. When they are discouraged, his words bring strength. When they are wandering into sin, his words bring correction. He is a walking food bank of wisdom. To "feed" here means to shepherd or to nourish. The righteous man is a pastor to those around him, whether he has a formal office or not. This is because his righteousness is not a private, pietistic affair. It is a robust, practical godliness that has been hammered out in the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. He has something to say because he has first listened to God.

21b But ignorant fools die for lack of a heart of wisdom.

The contrast is stark and severe. The word for "fools" here points to a dense, obstinate kind of foolishness. And their end is not mere struggle or failure; it is death. The reason for this fatal end is given as a "lack of heart," which can also be translated as a lack of sense or understanding. The "heart" (leb) in the Old Testament is the mission control center of the person. It is the seat of thought, will, and conscience. To lack a heart is to be internally hollow, to have no governing principles, no moral compass, no foundation of wisdom. The fool dies, not because of external circumstances, but from an internal condition. He starves to death, spiritually speaking, because there is no life within him. He cannot feed himself, let alone others. His problem is not a lack of information, but a lack of a "heart" to receive and rightly process the wisdom God has made available everywhere. He has rejected knowledge, and so he is destroyed by his lack of it (Hosea 4:6). He is a man who dies of thirst while standing in a river, because he has no "heart" to drink.

Application

The first and most obvious application is to examine our own speech. What comes out of our mouths? Do our words nourish others? When you speak to your spouse, your children, your coworkers, do they leave the conversation more encouraged, more clear-headed, more oriented toward godliness? Or do your words drain the life out of the room, leaving people confused, discouraged, or tempted? Our words are a spiritual EKG, revealing the true condition of our hearts. If you find that your speech is consistently foolish, critical, or empty, the solution is not to simply try harder to talk like a righteous person. The problem is deeper. You need a new heart.

This brings us to the gospel. Who is the ultimate righteous man whose lips feed many? It is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Bread of Life, and His words are spirit and life (John 6:63). All true wisdom, all nourishing truth, flows from Him. The fool dies for lack of a heart, but God's promise in the new covenant is precisely to fix this problem: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). The only way to move from the second half of this proverb to the first is by grace. It is to admit our foolishness and our fatal heart condition, and to come to Christ for a spiritual heart transplant. Once He has given us a new heart, He then commissions us to be agents of His life-giving word. He tells Peter, "Feed my sheep" (John 21:17). We who have been fed by the righteous one are now called to be righteous ones whose lips feed many, all for His glory.