New Revised Standard Version
A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Contemporary English Version
Kind words are good medicine, but deceitful words can really hurt.

New American Bible
A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse one breaks the spirit.

Douay-Rheims Bible
A peaceable tongue is a tree of life: but that which is immoderate, shall crush the spirit.

A peaceable tongue is a tree of life: but that which is immoderate, shall crush the spirit.

a wholesome

Proverbs 12:18 There is that promiseth, and is pricked as it were with a sword of conscience: but the tongue of the wise is health.

Proverbs 16:24 Well ordered words are as a honeycomb: sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

Malachi 4:2 But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings: and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd.

a tree

Proverbs 3:18 The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, hath established the heavens by prudence.

Genesis 3:22-24 And he said: Behold Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil: now therefore lest perhaps he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. . . .

1 Timothy 6:3 If any man teach otherwise and consent not to the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to that doctrine which is according to godliness,

Revelation 2:7 He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of my God.

a breach

Proverbs 18:8,14 The words of the double tongued are as if they were harmless: and they reach even to the inner parts of the bowels. Fear casteth down the slothful: and the souls of the effeminate shall be hungry. . . .

Proverbs 26:22 The words of a talebearer are as it were simple, but they reach to the innermost parts of the belly.

Psalm 52:2-4 All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice: as a sharp razor, thou hast wrought deceit. . . .

Psalm 109:22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.