Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.
- BSB Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.
- NKJV Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you.
- NASB Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.
- NLT Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.
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
Fix your eyes straight ahead on the right way. Wisdom keeps a steady, undistracted gaze on its goal.
Overview
The wise are to look directly forward, not letting their eyes wander toward tempting detours. This singleness of vision pictures a focused, purposeful pursuit of the good. It anticipates the call to run the race looking to Jesus, fixing our gaze on him rather than on distractions (Heb 12:1-2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 119:37Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
- Matt 6:22The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
- Job 31:1I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
- Prov 23:33Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
- Prov 23:5Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 4:25 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.