From the fruit of his speech ¹  a person eats good things, ²  but the faithless ³  desire ⁴  the fruit of violence. ⁵ 

biblegateway Pro 13:2

From the fruit of a man’s mouth he enjoys good, But the desire of the treacherous is violence.

From the words of his mouth, a man will enjoy good things, but treacherous people have an appetite for violence.

A person eats well as a result of his speaking ability, but the appetite of treacherous people craves violence.

biblegateway Pro 13:2

From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things, but the unfaithful have a craving for violence.

From the fruit of his mouth a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence.

bibleoremus Pro 13:2

From the fruit of their words good persons eat good things, but the desire of the treacherous is for wrongdoing.

The good enjoy the fruit of righteousness, but violence is meat and drink for the perfidious.

biblegateway Pro 13:2

A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth, But the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence.

A man shall eat good by the fruit of [his] mouth: but the soul of the transgressors [shall eat] violence.

biblegateway Pro 13:2

From the fruit of his speech ¹  a person eats good things, ²  but the faithless ³  desire ⁴  the fruit of violence. ⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “lips” (so NIV); KJV “mouth.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause for what the lips produce: speech.

² tn Heb “he eats [what is] good.”

³ tn Heb “the desire of the faithless.” The noun “faithless” is a subjective genitive: “the faithless desire….”

⁴ tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) has a broad range of meanings, and here denotes “appetite” (e.g., Ps 17:9; Prov 23:3; Eccl 2:24; Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; BDB 660 s.v. 5.c) or (2) “desire” (e.g., Deut 12:20; Prov 13:4; 19:8; 21:10; BDB 660 s.v. 6.a).

⁵ tn Heb “violence.” The phrase “the fruit of” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the parallelism. The term “violence” is probably a metonymy of cause: “violence” represents what violence gains – ill-gotten gains resulting from violent crime. The wicked desire what does not belong to them.

⁵ tc The LXX reads “the souls of the wicked perish untimely.” The MT makes sense as it stands.