so they will be life to your soul, and grace for your neck.
Parallel translations
- KJV So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.
- BSB They will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck.
- NKJV So they will be life to your soul And grace to your neck.
- NASB And they will be life to your soul And adornment to your neck.
- NLT for they will refresh your soul. They are like jewels on a necklace.
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 is life to the soul and an adornment of grace. To keep wisdom is to be inwardly alive and outwardly graced.
Overview
Wisdom is pictured both as inner vitality ('life to your soul') and as a beautiful ornament ('grace for your neck'), like a valued necklace. It enriches the whole person, not merely the intellect. Such life and grace find their fullness in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom (Col 2:3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Prov 4:22For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body.
- Prov 1:9for they will be a garland to grace your head, and chains around your neck.
- Isa 38:16Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.
- John 12:49–50For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
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 3:22 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.