Commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully 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.
- BSB Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to 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.
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. Turn your ear to my understanding:
- Prov 2:2–6So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
- Prov 23:19Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!
- Jas 1:21–25Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
- Ezek 33:31They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.
- Prov 22:17Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching.
- Matt 13:52He said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.”
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.