The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death.
Parallel translations
- WEB The fear of Yahweh is a fountain of life, turning people from the snares of death.
- KJV The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.
- BSB The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.
- NASB The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, By which one may avoid the snares of death.
- NLT Fear of the Lord is a life-giving fountain; it offers escape from the snares of death.
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
The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life that turns people from death's snares. Reverence for God leads to life.
Overview
Echoing 13:14, this proverb calls the fear of the LORD a life-giving fountain that steers people away from deadly traps. It places reverence for God at the center of true and abundant life. Jesus offers living water that becomes a spring welling up to eternal life (John 4:14), the ultimate fulfillment of this imagery.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 13:14The teaching of the wise is a spring of life, to turn from the snares of death.
- Rev 21:6He said to me, “I have become the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life.
- Prov 2:10–18For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
- Isa 33:6There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is your treasure.
- Ps 18:5The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me.
- Prov 22:5Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked: whoever guards his soul stays from them.
- Eccl 7:26I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
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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 14:27 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.