My child, listen and be wise: Keep your heart on the right course.
Parallel translations
- WEB Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!
- KJV Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
- BSB Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course.
- NKJV Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way.
- NASB Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the 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
Listen, grow wise, and keep your heart fixed on the right path.
Overview
The teacher renews his personal appeal, urging the son to direct his heart deliberately toward wisdom's way. The heart, as the governing center of life, must be steered intentionally onto the right course. This guarding of the heart (Prov. 4:23) is fulfilled as Christ rules within by His Spirit, keeping His people on the path of life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Prov 23:26My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.
- Prov 4:10–23Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many.
- Prov 23:12Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
- Prov 6:6Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;
- Prov 9:6Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.”
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 23:19 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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