Like water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.
Parallel translations
- KJV As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
- BSB As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the true man.
- NKJV As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man.
- NASB As in water a face reflects the face, So the heart of a person reflects the person.
- NLT As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.
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
Just as water mirrors a face, a person's heart reveals his true character. It teaches that inner thoughts shape and disclose who we really are.
Overview
The proverb observes that as water reflects one's face, so the heart reflects the person, pointing to the deep correspondence between inner life and true identity. Outward conduct ultimately mirrors the heart's condition. This anticipates Jesus' teaching that out of the heart's overflow the mouth speaks and life is shaped, so the heart must be cleansed by Him (Luke 6:45).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Jas 1:22–25But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
- Ps 33:15he who fashions all of their hearts; and he considers all of their works.
- Mark 7:21For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
- Gen 6:5Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 27:19 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
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.