My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
Parallel translations
- WEB My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:
- KJV My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
- NKJV My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding,
- NASB My son, pay attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
- NLT My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen carefully to my wise counsel.
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
The son is called to attend to his father's wisdom and understanding. Careful listening prepares one to resist temptation.
Overview
Chapter 5 opens a sustained warning against sexual immorality, beginning with the familiar appeal to heed wisdom. The placement is deliberate: only one grounded in wisdom will withstand the seductions to come. Such attentiveness to godly instruction is the first defense against sin's allurements.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Prov 22:17Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise—apply your mind to my knowledge—
- Rev 2:11He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death.
- Prov 4:20My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
- Prov 2:1My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,
- Rev 3:13He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
- Rev 2:17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.
- Mark 4:23If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
- Jas 1:19My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
- Prov 4:1Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.
- Rev 2:29He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
- Rev 2:7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.
- Rev 3:6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
- Matt 3:9And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
- Rev 3:22He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 5:1 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.