Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,
Parallel translations
- KJV Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
- BSB Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you,
- NKJV Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you,
- NASB Discretion will watch over you, Understanding will guard you,
- NLT Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.
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
Discretion and understanding will watch over and protect you. It matters because internalized wisdom becomes a guard against evil.
Overview
Once wisdom dwells within (v. 10), it functions as a protective guardian. Discretion keeps watch, steering the wise away from danger. This protective power of indwelling wisdom prepares for the deliverance described in the following verses.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 4:6Don’t forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you.
- Eph 5:15Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
- Ps 25:21Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
- Eccl 10:10If the ax is blunt, and one doesn’t sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but skill brings success.
- Ps 119:9–11How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
- Eccl 9:15–18Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
- Prov 6:22–24When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.
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 2:11 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.