Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart.
- KJV Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
- NKJV Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;
- NASB They are not to escape from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart.
- NLT Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart,
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
Keep these words always in sight and deep in the heart. Wisdom must be guarded both outwardly and inwardly.
Overview
The father urges that his words not slip from view and that they be kept in the very center of the heart, the seat of will and affection. Wisdom is to be internalized, not merely heard. This anticipates the new-covenant promise of God's law written on the heart (Jer 31:33; Heb 8:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Prov 3:21My son, do not lose sight of this: Preserve sound judgment and discernment.
- Prov 3:3Never let loving devotion or faithfulness leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
- Prov 7:1–2My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you.
- Ps 40:8I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
- Prov 2:1My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,
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 4:21 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
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