John Trapp Complete Commentary - Proverbs 15:4
Pro 15:4 A wholesome tongue [is] a tree of life: but perverseness therein [is] a breach in the spirit. Ver. 4. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life. ] As uttering words that have a healing property in them, pure, precious, and profitable; not unlike that tree of life in the midst of God’s garden, that would have given immortality to the eaters. See August. de Civit. Dei, lib. xv. cap. 20. But perverseness therein is a breach of the spirit. ] That is, in the conscience, which it goreth and... read more
Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments - Proverbs 15:1-33
Proverbs 15:1 . A soft answer turneth away wrath. It bows to the tempest, it names a mitigating circumstance, it gives a favourable turn to misconstruction, it proposes a better way. My father, said the wary Syrian, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he says, wash, and be clean? Rehoboam, for the want of this wisdom, lost the ten tribes; whereas the intelligent woman on the wall, who wished to speak with Joab, saved the... read more