The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.
Parallel translations
- WEB The king’s heart is in Yahweh’s hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.
- KJV The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
- NKJV The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.
- NASB The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He pleases.
- NLT The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he guides it wherever he pleases.
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 king's heart is in the Lord's hand, directed wherever he wills. It matters because God sovereignly rules even the most powerful human rulers.
Overview
Like an irrigation channel turned at will, even a king's heart is guided by God's sovereign hand for his purposes (Ezra 6:22; Daniel 2:21). This assures believers that no earthly power is beyond God's control. We can trust the Lord who governs rulers and nations to accomplish his good and just will.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Prov 16:9A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
- Ezra 6:22For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.
- Prov 20:24A man’s steps are from the LORD, so how can anyone understand his own way?
- Acts 7:10and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.
- Prov 16:1The plans of the heart belong to man, but the reply of the tongue is from the LORD.
- Ezra 7:27–28Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put into the heart of the king to so honor the house of the LORD in Jerusalem,
- Dan 4:35All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
- Ps 106:46He made them objects of compassion to all who held them captive.
- Isa 43:19Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
- Neh 2:4“What is your request?” replied the king. So I prayed to the God of heaven
- Neh 1:11O Lord, may Your ear be attentive to my prayer and to the prayers of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Give Your servant success this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (At that time I was the cupbearer to the king.)
- Ps 105:25whose hearts He turned to hate His people, to conspire against His servants.
- Ps 74:15You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
- Ps 93:4Above the roar of many waters—the mighty breakers of the sea—the LORD on high is majestic.
- Isa 44:27who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
- Rev 16:4And the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they turned to blood.
- Ps 114:3The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;
- Rev 16:12And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East.
- Ps 114:5Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,
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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 21:1 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
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