My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.
Parallel translations
- WEB My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.
- KJV My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
- NKJV My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways.
- NASB ¶Give me your heart, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways.
- NLT O my son, give me your heart. May your eyes take delight in following my ways.
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 teacher pleads, Give me your heart and follow my ways closely.
Overview
Wisdom asks not merely for outward obedience but for the heart, the seat of love and devotion. To keep one's eyes on the right way flows from a heart fully given. Strikingly, this is the same claim God Himself makes, calling for our whole heart, ultimately answered in love for Christ above all (Mark 12:30).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 119:2Blessed are those who keep His testimonies and seek Him with all their heart.
- Ps 119:9–11How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word.
- Deut 6:5And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
- Matt 10:37–38Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;
- Prov 4:25–27Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.
- Prov 4:23Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.
- Prov 3:1My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;
- 2 Cor 5:14–15For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.
- Eph 3:17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love,
- Prov 4:4he taught me and said, “Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands and you will live.
- Hos 14:9Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them but the rebellious stumble in them.
- Ps 107:43Let him who is wise pay heed to these things and consider the loving devotion of the LORD.
- Luke 14:26“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.
- 2 Pet 1:19We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
- 2 Cor 8:5And not only did they do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us, because it was the will of God.
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 23:26 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.