My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe 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.
- BSB My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in 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 statutes, who seek him with their whole heart.
- Ps 119:9–11How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
- Deut 6:5You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
- Matt 10:37–38He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.
- Prov 4:25–27Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.
- Prov 4:23Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.
- Prov 3:1My son, don’t forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:
- 2 Cor 5:14–15For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died.
- Eph 3:17that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
- Prov 4:4He taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments, and live.
- Hos 14:9Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous walk in them; But the rebellious stumble in them.
- Ps 107:43Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things. They will consider the loving kindnesses of Yahweh.
- Luke 14:26“If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple.
- 2 Pet 1:19We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts:
- 2 Cor 8:5This was not as we had hoped, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us through the will of God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.