Proverbs 11:30 (ESV) says that “the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.” On its face, this verse seems to convey a rather bland and obvious truth – which is that righteous people produce some kind of undefined desirable fruit, and that wise people try to win souls. But when you look at the meanings of the key, ancient Hebrew words from which that verse is translated, along with a recognition of the metaphor being used, you gain a far deeper and richer understanding of the writer’s message.
The very first phrase in the verse is a metaphor. A metaphor is a literary way of making an implicit comparison between things and thereby creating a symbolic representation. In this case, “righteous” people are compared to trees that produce fruit, and their fruit somehow grows into some kind of life-giving force. But before we can even begin to decipher what the metaphor means, we’ve got to understand what the writer means by “righteous.” The ancient Hebrew word here is ṣadîq, which means lawful, just, or right. But it is derived from another Hebrew word, ṣāḏaq, which has connotations of moral or ethical rightness – a kind of cleanness. So a clean-hearted person who is morally or ethically sound, and who lives justly within the bounds of God’s law, is a person who produces fruit. Well, what is the standard for this kind of righteousness? It’s Jesus himself (1 Peter 2:20-22). This means that the closer you get to that standard, the more fruit you’ll produce. But how do you get to that standard, and what exactly is the fruit? To get to that standard is to submit yourself to Jesus – to belong to him, and in the process of that belonging, you will begin to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and self-control. These are attributes which Paul describes as fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-24). These fruits become trees of life. Meaning that they drop seeds and become new trees, they then grow, provide shade, food, building materials, beauty, and all kinds of other wonderful things. But what kind of life do they produce? The Hebrew word for life in that verse is ḥay, which is a word with connotations of revival, renewal, sustenance, and maintenance. When you belong to Jesus, he makes you righteous, gives you new life, and causes you to produce fruit, which, in turn, revives others and gives them life.
This fits perfectly with the next phrase, in which the writer argues that a person’s wisdom is made known in their work to capture souls. The Hebrew word for “capture,” is the word lāqaḥ, which can mean to “seize,” to “take,” to “fetch,” or to “snatch.” A wise person who belongs to the Lord will recognize the goodness he has received from God, and he will use his wisdom, his intellect, and his cleverness to win or capture the hearts, minds, and spirits of people from the jowls of a spiritually fallen world that is trying to devour them (1 Peter 5:8). The employment of such loving wisdom will produce even more fruit, and will provide benefit to everyone in a community.
Comments