Rashi
Jewish
1040–1105
“The lips of the righteous will feed many, etc. Many eat in his merit and because of his prayer.”
From the early Church Fathers to now.
1 Jewish · 2 Reformed · 1 Catholic · 1 Lutheran
“The lips of the just teach many: but they that are ignorant, shall die in the want of understanding.”
“The lips of the righteous will feed many, etc. Many eat in his merit and because of his prayer.”
“The lips of the righteous feed many,.... Not their bodies; words are but wind, and will not feed; it is not enough to say to the distressed, "be ye warmed and filled", and give nothing; unless this can be understood of obtaining food for others by their prayers, as Jarchi interprets it: but the souls of many; these the righteous feed, by communicating the spiritual knowledge and understanding of divine things they are partakers of; by setting before them the bread of life, the honey and milk of the Gospel, they have under their tongue; and by the good counsel and advice, comforts and admonitions, they give them; see Jer 3:15; but fools die for want of wisdom: not a corporeal death, which is common to men of every rank and quality; wise men die even as fools; but they continue under the power of a spiritual death, for want of enlightening and quickening grace, and so die an eternal death: not for want of natural wisdom, which they may have a greater share of than those who live spiritually and eternally; but for want of spiritual wisdom and knowledge; the knowledge of Christ, and the way of life and salvation by him, and the knowledge of God in Christ; and not always for the want of the means of such wisdom and knowledge; as the Scriptures, which are able to make a man wise unto salvation; and the Gospel, which is the wisdom of God in a mystery; but through the neglect and contempt of them: though sometimes men perish through want of the means of knowledge, and the neglect of those who should instruct them, Hos 4:6.”
“Fools not only fail to benefit others, as do the righteous, but procure their own ruin (compare Pro 10:11, Pro 10:17; Hos 4:6).”
“21 The lips of the righteous edify many; But fools die through want of understanding.”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.