My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,
Parallel translations
- WEB My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;
- KJV My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
- 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, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;
- Prov 1:3and for receiving instruction in wise living and in righteousness, justice, and equity.
- Prov 4:1Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.
- John 12:47–48As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
- Prov 7:1My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you.
- Deut 6:6–9These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.
- Prov 4:20–22My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
- Ps 119:9–11How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word.
- Prov 6:21Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck.
- Job 23:12I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.
- Prov 4:10Listen, my son, and receive my words, and the years of your life will be many.
- Luke 2:19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
- Matt 13:44The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.
- Luke 2:51Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
- 1 Tim 1:15This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.
- Luke 9:44“Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 2:1 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.