Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days.
Parallel translations
- WEB Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter end.
- KJV Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.
- NKJV Listen to counsel and receive instruction, That you may be wise in your latter days.
- NASB Listen to advice and accept discipline, So that you may be wise the rest of your days.
- NLT Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.
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
Heed counsel and instruction so you may be wise in the end. A lifetime of teachability leads to lasting wisdom.
Overview
This proverb exhorts the hearer to listen to advice and accept discipline in order to grow wise 'in his latter end,' that is, for the rest of his life. It frames wisdom as the fruit of humble, ongoing receptivity to correction. Such teachability marks the disciple of Christ, who never outgrows the need to learn from God's Word and the wise counsel of others.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 12:15The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to counsel.
- Prov 8:34–35Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at the posts of my doorway.
- Prov 2:1–9My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,
- Prov 1:8Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.
- Prov 4:1Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.
- Luke 16:19–23Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.
- Num 23:10Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”
- Ps 90:14Satisfy us in the morning with Your loving devotion, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
- Ps 37:37Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.
- Ps 90:12So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom.
- Deut 8:16He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.
- Deut 32:29If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 19:20 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.