My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
Parallel translations
- WEB My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;
- 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, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
- Prov 1:3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
- Prov 4:1Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
- John 12:47–48And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
- Prov 7:1My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
- Deut 6:6–9And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
- Prov 4:20–22My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
- Ps 119:9–11Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
- Prov 6:21Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.
- Job 23:12Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
- Prov 4:10Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
- Luke 2:19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
- Matt 13:44Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
- Luke 2:51And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
- 1 Tim 1:15This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
- Luke 9:44Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall 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.