Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.
Parallel translations
- WEB Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
- KJV Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
- NKJV Apply your heart to instruction, And your ears to words of knowledge.
- NASB Apply your heart to discipline, And your ears to words of knowledge.
- NLT Commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully to words of knowledge.
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
Devote your heart and ears wholeheartedly to instruction and knowledge.
Overview
This renews the call to teachable receptivity that opened the section (22:17). Wisdom requires deliberate engagement of both heart and hearing, not casual attention. Such hunger to learn reflects the disciple's posture toward Christ, who invites all to learn from Him (Matt. 11:29).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 5:1–2My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
- Prov 2:2–6if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding,
- Prov 23:19Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course.
- Jas 1:21–25Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls.
- Ezek 33:31So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.
- Prov 22:17Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise—apply your mind to my knowledge—
- Matt 13:52Then He told them, “For this reason, every scribe who has been discipled in the kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 23:12 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.