For they are a garland of grace on your head and a pendant around your neck.
Parallel translations
- WEB for they will be a garland to grace your head, and chains around your neck.
- KJV For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
- NKJV For they will be a graceful ornament on your head, And chains about your neck.
- NASB For they are a graceful wreath for your head And necklaces for your neck.
- NLT What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Parental instruction is like a beautiful garland and necklace adorning the one who keeps it. It matters because obedience to wisdom brings genuine honor and grace.
Overview
Wisdom is pictured as adornment that dignifies and beautifies the life of the one who receives it. Unlike fleeting ornaments, godly instruction confers lasting honor before God and others. This grace, freely given through teaching, points to the greater adornment of righteousness found in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Prov 4:9She will set a garland of grace on your head; she will present you with a crown of beauty.”
- Dan 5:29Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel in purple, placed a gold chain around his neck, and proclaimed him the third highest ruler in the kingdom.
- Gen 41:42Then Pharaoh removed the signet ring from his finger, put it on Joseph’s finger, clothed him in garments of fine linen, and placed a gold chain around his neck.
- Prov 3:22They will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck.
- Prov 6:20–21My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
- Ezek 16:11I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.
- Isa 3:19their pendants, bracelets, and veils;
- Song 1:10Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.
- Dan 5:7The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers, and diviners to be brought in, and he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this inscription and tells me its interpretation will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
- 1 Pet 3:3–4Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes,
- Dan 5:16But I have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Therefore, if you can read this inscription and give me its interpretation, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
- 1 Tim 2:9–10Likewise, I want the women to adorn themselves with respectable apparel, with modesty, and with self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,
- Song 4:9You have captured my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your neck.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 1:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.