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Proverbs 11:30

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11:30The fruit of the righteous is like103 a tree producing life,104

and the one who wins souls105 is wise.106

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Footnotes

  1. 103 The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.
  2. 104 Heb “tree of life” (so , , , ). The noun חַיִּים (khayyim, “life”) is genitive of product. What the righteous produce (“fruit”) is like a tree of life—a long and healthy life as well as a life-giving influence and provision for others.
  3. 105 The Leningrad Codex mistakenly vocalized ש (sin or shin) as שׂ (sin) instead of שׁ (shin) in the term נְפָשׂוֹת (nefashot) which is vocalized as נְפָשׁוֹת (nefasot, “souls”) in the other medieval Hebrew and early printed editions of the Masoretic Text.
  4. 106 The reads חָכָם (khakham, “wise”) and seems to refer to capturing (לָקַח, laqakh; “to lay hold of; to seize; to capture”) people with influential ideas (e.g., 2 Sam 15:6). An alternate textual tradition reads חָמָס (khamas) “violent” (reflected in the and ) and refers to taking away lives: “but the one who takes away lives (= kills people) is violent” (cf. , , ). The textual variant was caused by orthographic confusion of ס (samek) and ך (kaf), and metathesis of ם (mem) between the 2nd and 3rd consonants. If the parallelism is synonymous, the reading fits; if the parallelism is antithetical, the alternate tradition fits. See D. C. Snell, “ ‘Taking Souls’ in Proverbs 11:30,” 33 (1083): 362–65.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,

and whoever captures souls is wise.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,

and the one who is wise saves lives.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,

but a cunning person takes lives.

NLTNew Living Translation

The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life;

a wise person wins friends.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life,

and he who captures souls is wise.

KJV 1900King James Version

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life;

And he that winneth souls is wise.