The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out.
Ver. 31. The mouth of the just, &c.] Heb., Buddeth forth, as a fruit tree, to which the tongue is fitly and finely here resembled. Hence speech is called the "fruit of the lips."
But the froward tongue shall be cut out.] As a fruitless tree is cut down to the fire. Nestorius the heretic his tongue was eaten off with worms. a Archbishop Arundel's tongue rotted in his head. From Miriam's example, Numbers 12:1,3 ; Num 12:10 the Jewish doctors gather that leprosy is a punishment for an evil tongue, and in special for speaking against rulers. The Lady de Breuse had by her virulent and railing tongue more exasperated the fury of King John, whom she reviled as a tyrant and a murderer, than could be pacified by her strange present, of four hundred kine, and one bull, all milk white, except only the ears, which were red, sent unto the queen. b
a Nestorii lingua vermibus exesa.
b Speed's Chron., fol. 572.