The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?
Parallel translations
- WEB A man’s steps are from Yahweh; how then can man understand his way?
- KJV Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
- BSB A man’s steps are from the LORD, so how can anyone understand his own way?
- NKJV A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?
- NASB A man’s steps are ordained by the Lord; How then can a person understand his way?
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
The Lord directs a person's steps, so we cannot fully understand our own way. It matters because it humbles us to trust God's sovereign guidance.
Overview
Human life unfolds under God's providence, and our limited understanding cannot grasp the whole of our path (Jeremiah 10:23; Proverbs 16:9). The verse calls for humble dependence rather than self-reliant certainty. We walk by faith, trusting the sovereign God who orders our steps for his purposes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 16:9A man’s heart plans his course, but Yahweh directs his steps.
- Jer 10:23Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
- Ps 25:12What man is he who fears Yahweh? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.
- Ps 37:23A man’s goings are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way.
- Ps 25:4Show me your ways, Yahweh. Teach me your paths.
- Prov 14:8The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.
- Dan 5:23but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified.
- Acts 17:28‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
- Isa 10:6–7I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me will I give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
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 20:24 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.