Proverbs 3:18
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her: and happy is every one that retains her.
American King James Version (AKJV)
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her: and happy is every one that retains her.
American Standard Version (ASV)
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: And happy is every one that retaineth her.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
She is a tree of life to all who take her in their hands, and happy is everyone who keeps her.
Webster's Revision
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
World English Bible
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Happy is everyone who retains her.
English Revised Version (ERV)
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
Clarke's Proverbs 3:18 Bible Commentary
She is a tree of life - עץ חיים ets chaiyim, "the tree of lives," alluding most manifestly to the tree so called which God in the beginning planted in the garden of Paradise, by eating the fruit of which all the wastes of nature might have been continually repaired, so as to prevent death for ever. This is an opinion which appears probable enough. The blessings which wisdom - true religion - gives to men, preserve them in life, comfort them through life, cause them to triumph in death, and ensure them a glorious immortality.
Barnes's Proverbs 3:18 Bible Commentary
This and the other references in Proverbs PRomans 11:30; Proverbs 13:12; Proverbs 15:4 are the only allusions in any book of the Old Testament, after Genesis, to the "tree" itself, or to its spiritual significance. Further, there is the tendency to a half-allegorizing application of that history. "The tree of life" which Adam was not to taste lies open to his children. Wisdom is the "tree of life," giving a true immortality. The symbol entered largely into the religious imagery. of Assyria, Egypt, and Persia. Philo, going a step further, found in the two trees the ideal representatives of speculative knowledge and moral wisdom; and the same image subserves a higher purpose in the promises and the visions of Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:2.
Wesley's Proverbs 3:18 Bible Commentary
3:18 A tree - A pledge of everlasting life. He alludes to the tree of life, and intimates, that this is the only restorer of that life which we have lost by sin.