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14 From the fruit of their mouths people have their fill of good,(A)
    and the works of their hands come back upon them.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 12:14 The saying contrasts words and deeds. “Fruit” here is not what one normally eats, as in 1:31; 8:19; 31:16, 31, but the consequences of one’s actions. In the second line the things that issue from one’s hands (one’s deeds) come back to one in recompense or punishment. Prv 13:2a and 18:20 are variants. Cf. Mt 7:17; Gal 6:8.

20 With the fruit of one’s mouth one’s belly is filled,
    with the produce of one’s lips one is sated.[a](A)

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Footnotes

  1. 18:20 Fruit from the earth is our ordinary sustenance, but “the fruit of one’s lips,” i.e., our words, also affect our well-being. If our words and our deeds are right, then we are blessed, our “belly is filled.”