My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;
Parallel translations
- KJV My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
- BSB My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,
- NKJV My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you,
- NASB My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you,
- NLT My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands.
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
Wisdom is gained by receiving and treasuring God's words within. It matters because it sets the condition for the great promises that follow.
Overview
This verse begins a single long sentence (vv. 1-5) of 'if-then' conditions. Receiving and storing up God's commands pictures active, internal devotion to His word. Such treasuring of Scripture is the path to knowing God, fully realized as His word dwells in us through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Prov 3:1My son, don’t forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:
- Prov 1:3to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;
- Prov 4:1Listen, sons, to a father’s instruction. Pay attention and know understanding;
- John 12:47–48If anyone listens to my sayings, and doesn’t believe, I don’t judge him. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
- Prov 7:1My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.
- Deut 6:6–9These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;
- Prov 4:20–22My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings.
- Ps 119:9–11How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
- Prov 6:21Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.
- Job 23:12I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
- Prov 4:10Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many.
- Luke 2:19But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.
- Matt 13:44“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.
- Luke 2:51And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
- 1 Tim 1:15The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
- Luke 9:44“Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man will be delivered up into the hands of men.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 2:1 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.