She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left.
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.
- 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.
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 years of life, and peace, will they add to you.
- 2 Cor 6:10as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
- Prov 22:4The result of humility and the fear of Yahweh is wealth, honor, and life.
- 1 Kgs 3:13I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you for all your days.
- 1 Tim 4:8For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now, and of that which is to come.
- Mark 10:30but he will receive one hundred times more now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land, with persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life.
- Prov 8:18–21With me are riches, honor, enduring wealth, and prosperity.
- Prov 4:6–10Don’t forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you.
- 1 Cor 3:21–23Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
- Ps 21:4He asked life of you, you gave it to him, even length of days forever and ever.
- Ps 71:9Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t 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.