Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity—every good path.
Parallel translations
- WEB Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.
- KJV Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
- NKJV Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.
- NASB Then you will discern righteousness, justice, And integrity, and every good path.
- NLT Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go.
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
Then you will understand righteousness, justice, equity, and every good path. It matters because wisdom yields discernment for living rightly in every situation.
Overview
This second 'then' (cf. v. 5) promises moral discernment as wisdom's fruit. The seeker gains the ability to recognize and walk the good path. Such righteousness and justice reflect God's own character and are perfectly embodied in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 6:16This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’
- Isa 48:17Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.
- Ps 143:8–10Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.
- Matt 7:13–14Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
- Prov 1:2–6for gaining wisdom and discipline, for comprehending words of insight,
- Ps 119:99I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.
- Ps 32:8I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.
- Ps 25:8–9Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way.
- John 14:6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
- Isa 35:8And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it—only those who walk in the Way—and fools will not stray onto it.
- Ps 119:105Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
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 2:9 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.