Proverbs 4: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

A father calls his children to listen, and passes on the instruction his own father gave him: get wisdom above everything else, and she will guard, honor, and crown the one who holds on to her. He then warns against the path of wicked people, who cannot sleep until they have done harm, and contrasts it with the path of the righteous, which grows brighter like morning light. The chapter closes with directions to guard the heart, the mouth, the eyes, and the feet.

Claim by Claim

1. 4:1
   • The speaker tells sons to listen to a father's instruction.
   • The speaker tells them to pay attention in order to know understanding.
2. 4:2
   • The speaker says he has given them good teaching.
   • The speaker tells them not to abandon his instruction.
3. 4:3
   • The speaker was a son to his father.
   • The speaker was tender.
   • The speaker was the only child before his mother.
4. 4:4
   • The father taught the speaker.
   • The father said to the speaker: let your heart hold fast my words.
   • The father said: keep my commandments.
   • The father said: live.
5. 4:5
   • The command is given: get wisdom.
   • The command is given: get understanding.
   • The command is given: do not forget.
   • The command is given: do not turn aside from the words of the speaker's mouth.
6. 4:6
   • The command is given: do not forsake wisdom.
   • If she is not forsaken, wisdom will preserve the hearer.
   • The command is given: love wisdom.
   • If she is loved, wisdom will guard the hearer.
7. 4:7
   • Wisdom is the first and chief thing.
   • Therefore the command is given: get wisdom.
   • With all that one acquires, the command is given: get understanding.
8. 4:8
   • The command is given: prize wisdom highly.
   • If she is prized, wisdom will exalt the hearer.
   • Wisdom will honor the hearer when he embraces her.
9. 4:9
   • Wisdom will give a garland of grace to the hearer's head.
   • Wisdom will bestow on the hearer a crown of beauty, the verb being ambiguous between presenting it and shielding him with it.
10. 4:10
    • The speaker tells his son to listen.
    • The speaker tells his son to receive his sayings.
    • The years of the son's life will be many.
11. 4:11
    • The speaker has taught his son in the way of wisdom.
    • The speaker has led his son in paths of uprightness.
12. 4:12
    • When the son walks, his steps will not be cramped.
    • If the son runs, he will not stumble.
13. 4:13
    • The command is given: take firm hold of instruction.
    • The command is given: do not let it go.
    • The command is given: guard it.
    • Instruction is the hearer's life.
14. 4:14
    • The command is given: do not enter the path of the wicked.
    • The command is given: do not walk in the way of evil men.
15. 4:15
    • The command is given: avoid that way.
    • The command is given: do not pass along it.
    • The command is given: turn aside from it.
    • The command is given: pass on.
16. 4:16
    • The wicked do not sleep unless they have done evil.
    • Their sleep is taken away unless they make someone stumble.
17. 4:17
    • The wicked eat the bread of wickedness.
    • The wicked drink the wine of violence.
18. 4:18
    • The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn.
    • That light keeps growing brighter until the day is full.
19. 4:19
    • The way of the wicked is like deep darkness.
    • The wicked do not know what they stumble over.
20. 4:20
    • The speaker tells his son to pay attention to his words.
    • The speaker tells his son to incline his ear to his sayings.
21. 4:21
    • The command is given: do not let them depart from your eyes.
    • The command is given: keep them within your heart.
22. 4:22
    • The speaker's words are life to those who find them.
    • The speaker's words are healing to all the flesh of the one who finds them.
23. 4:23
    • The command is given: guard your heart above all else that is guarded.
    • Out of the heart come the outflowings of life.
24. 4:24
    • The command is given: put crookedness of mouth away from you.
    • The command is given: put twisted speech of the lips far from you.
25. 4:25
    • Let your eyes look straight ahead.
    • Let your eyelids look straight in front of you.
26. 4:26
    • The command is given: make level the path of your feet.
    • All your ways will be established.
27. 4:27
    • The command is given: do not turn to the right or to the left.
    • The command is given: remove your foot from evil.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

4:1

"Hear, ye children" translates a Hebrew word meaning "sons." In the wisdom writings of the ancient Near East, "my son" was the standard way a teacher addressed a pupil as well as the way a father addressed a child, and the chapters that follow use it in both senses at once. "Instruction" here is Hebrew *musar*, which covers training, discipline and correction, not just information passed on.

4:2

The KJV's "law" translates Hebrew *torah*, which at root means teaching or instruction given by an authority. It does not necessarily mean legislation; here it is the father's own body of teaching, set in parallel with "doctrine" in the first half of the line.

4:3

The Hebrew word behind "only" (*yachid*) can mean an only child in the literal sense, or a child who is uniquely precious; both readings are possible here. The speaker is presenting himself as someone who once sat where his listeners now sit, receiving from his own father what he is now passing on.

4:5

Wisdom in Proverbs is not mainly knowing facts. It is skill at living well, knowing the right thing to do.

4:6

Wisdom is "she" throughout this section because the Hebrew noun for wisdom, *chokmah*, is grammatically feminine, and Proverbs builds on that to speak of wisdom as a woman, one to be loved, embraced, and held on to. The pronoun is a feature of the Hebrew language and the poetic figure, not a statement that wisdom is female.

4:7

This verse is difficult in the Hebrew and is translated in more than one way. The word rendered "the principal thing" (*reshith*) can mean "first" in rank (wisdom is supreme) or "first" in sequence ("the beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom"). "With all thy getting" uses a commercial word for property or acquisitions: whatever else you may acquire, acquire understanding.

4:9

Both images come from public honor rather than royalty. A garland or wreath was placed on the head of a victor, a guest of honor at a banquet, or a bridegroom; the Hebrew word for "crown" (*ateret*) is used for a king's crown but also for any ornamental circlet marking distinction.

4:11

Roads and paths are the picture used all through this chapter. The road you choose stands for the way you live.

4:12

"Straitened" in 1611 English meant hemmed in, cramped, or narrowed, not distressed in the modern sense. The picture is of a road wide and clear enough that your stride is never shortened or blocked.

4:13

"Take fast hold" means hold on tightly. Here "fast" does not mean quick.

4:15

"Pass not by it" means do not even walk near it. Go a different way instead.

4:16

Today "mischief" means small silly trouble. In the King James it means really hurting someone.

4:17

The Hebrew allows two readings, and translators divide over them: either wickedness and violence are what these people live on, their food and drink; or the bread and wine they consume are what they got by wickedness and violence.

4:18

"The perfect day" in 1611 English means the day fully established, noon, when the light has reached its full strength. The image is a single sunrise brightening steadily from first gleam to midday, not a day free of fault.

4:19

The Hebrew word here is a strong one for thick or gloomy darkness, deeper than ordinary night. The second line is ambiguous in Hebrew: it may mean they cannot see what they trip over, or that they do not realize what it is they are stumbling into.

4:20

"Incline thine ear" means lean your ear closer. You do it when you really want to hear.

4:22

"Flesh" here is the Hebrew word for the body as a physical whole, with no negative sense attached to it. "Health" translates a word meaning healing or remedy.

4:23

"Heart" in Hebrew usage is the inner self as the seat of thought, memory, will and decision, closer to what English calls the mind, rather than the seat of emotion alone. The phrase behind "with all diligence" is literally "above all guarding," which can mean guard it very carefully or guard it more than anything else you guard. "The issues of life" translates a word for outgoings, used of the sources from which water flows.

4:24

"Froward" and "perverse" both mean crooked or twisted in 1611 English, bent away from straight, in keeping with the chapter's imagery of straight and crooked paths. "Froward" is not related to "forward" and does not mean bold.

4:25

Hebrew poetry pairs "eyes" with "eyelids" as two ways of saying the same thing; "eyelids" here simply means the gaze. The picture is a traveler keeping his eyes on the road ahead rather than glancing off to the side.

4:26

The Hebrew verb behind "ponder" means to weigh or to make level, and both senses are defensible here: either weigh up carefully where your feet are going, or make the road level for them. Translations divide between the two.

4:27

Turning neither right nor left is a set Hebrew idiom for keeping exactly to an assigned road or instruction without deviating in any direction. It carries no sense of political left and right.