Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
Parallel translations
- WEB Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.
- KJV Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
- NKJV Length of days is in her right hand, In her left hand riches and honor.
- NASB Long life is in her right hand; In her left hand are riches and honor.
- NLT She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left.
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
Wisdom holds long life in her right hand and riches and honor in her left. It matters because it portrays the rich blessings wisdom bestows.
Overview
Wisdom is personified as a gracious queen offering long life, wealth, and honor. These represent the comprehensive good that wisdom brings to those who embrace her. While such blessings are wisdom's general fruit, their fullest and most lasting form is the eternal life and inheritance found in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Prov 3:2for they will add length to your days, years and peace to your life.
- 2 Cor 6:10sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
- Prov 22:4The rewards of humility and the fear of the LORD are wealth and honor and life.
- 1 Kgs 3:13Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.
- 1 Tim 4:8For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come.
- Mark 10:30will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
- Prov 8:18–21With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and righteousness.
- Prov 4:6–10Do not forsake wisdom, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you.
- 1 Cor 3:21–23Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,
- Ps 21:4He asked You for life, and You granted it—length of days, forever and ever.
- Ps 71:9Do not discard me in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.
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 3:16 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.