Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
Parallel translations
- WEB Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.
- KJV Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
- NKJV Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
- NASB Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
- NLT Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
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
Trust Yahweh wholeheartedly and do not rely on your own understanding. It matters because faith means depending on God rather than our limited wisdom.
Overview
This beloved verse calls for total trust in the Lord over self-reliance. Human understanding is finite and fallen; God's wisdom is perfect. Such wholehearted trust is the heart of saving faith, looking away from self to God and His provision in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Ps 37:5Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it.
- Jer 17:7–8But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him.
- Prov 28:26He who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.
- Ps 37:3Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
- Ps 62:8Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah
- Isa 26:3–4You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You.
- Isa 12:2Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”
- Ps 37:7Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes.
- Prov 3:7Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
- Jer 10:23I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps.
- 1 Cor 3:18–20Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.
- Ps 146:3–5Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
- Rom 12:16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but enjoy the company of the lowly. Do not be conceited.
- Ps 125:1A song of ascents. Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion. It cannot be moved; it abides forever.
- Jer 9:23This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches.
- Ps 115:9–11O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and shield.
- Prov 22:19So that your trust may be in the LORD, I instruct you today—yes, you.
- Job 13:15Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. I will still defend my ways to His face.
- Prov 23:4Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
- 1 Cor 8:1–2Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
- Eph 1:12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 3:5 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.