My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
Parallel translations
- WEB My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.
- BSB My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you.
- NKJV My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you.
- NASB My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you.
- NLT Follow my advice, my son; always treasure my commands.
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 urged to keep his father's words and store up his commandments. Treasure wisdom's teaching within you.
Overview
A new appeal opens the chapter, calling the son to guard and internalize the father's instruction. Storing up commandments pictures wisdom kept safe within the heart, ready to guide. This sets the stage for an extended, vivid warning against the seductress that follows.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 1:8My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
- Rev 1:3Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
- Luke 11:28But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
- John 14:23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
- Prov 2:1–7My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
- Rev 22:9Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
- Job 22:22Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
- John 15:20Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
- Prov 3:1My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
- Deut 11:28And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
- Luke 8:15But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
- Prov 10:14Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
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 7:1 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.