Proverbs 12:14 Commentary and Bible Study

The idea is obviously of a harvest, the works of a man's hands and the words of his mouth, too, are described as fruit. It is a harvest picture in both sides of this little parable. In some respects words are like deeds. Just as good deeds please the Lord and earn his reward, so too do good words; they also reap a harvest from the Lord. The majority of the good we do to one another is through words. When it came to harvest time and the yield of the crop depended on the skill of the farmer: Had he worked the soil properly? Had he sown at the right time, and used good seed? Was he now harvesting when the crop was ripe and storing his produce where it would be preserved? Could he now feed his family for the whole year and trade and purchase other things that he could not produce for himself? The mouth of a righteous man is like the field of a farmer that bears fruit. Skill must also be applied in the use of the mouth, to speak a word in season, to point the way to Christ, to give encouragement to the downcast, to explain some doctrine which opens the understanding to many other things, to warn of some danger, or to faithfully but gently rebuke some evil behaviour which if unchecked will lead to death. All the good that comes from our mouths is like fruit from the land. The recompense of our hands returns to us in a more tangible and obvious way, but the fruit of the mouth is really no different from this, though it deals with intangibles.