Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
Parallel translations
- WEB Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.
- BSB Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
- 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 length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
- 2 Cor 6:10As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
- Prov 22:4By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.
- 1 Kgs 3:13And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.
- 1 Tim 4:8For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
- Mark 10:30But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
- Prov 8:18–21Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
- Prov 4:6–10Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
- 1 Cor 3:21–23Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
- Ps 21:4He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.
- Ps 71:9Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.
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.