A dad passes on what his own dad taught him. Get wisdom whatever it costs, stay off the path of bad people, and guard your heart, because everything you do comes out of it.
Proverbs 4:1
Children, listen when your father corrects you. Pay close attention, so that you learn to understand.
Hear, sons, a father's discipline,
The address is plural this time: sons, not my son. The teacher speaks as a father to all his pupils and asks first for a hearing that includes obeying.
and pay close attention so that you come to know insight.
This gives the purpose of listening. Attention is the means and insight is the result; nobody learns to tell right from wrong while half listening.
שמע · shama · hear and heed
Hearing that includes doing. The same command opens the second speech in verse 10.
מוסר · musar · discipline, correction
Training that includes being corrected. It returns in verse 13 as the thing to grip and not let go.
קשב · qashav · listen alertly
To prick up the ears. Stronger than shama: deliberate, focused attention. Repeated in verse 20.
ידע · yada · know by experience
Literally 'to know insight'. Knowing in Hebrew is first-hand acquaintance, not just information.
בינה · binah · insight
From bin, to tell apart. The ability to see the difference between things that look alike.
Proverbs 4:2
What I am handing on to you is good teaching. Do not walk away from it.
For what I am handing you is good teaching;
This is the reason to listen. The father vouches for the quality of what he gives: it is good, meaning sound and beneficial, and he is about to show it was tested on himself.
do not walk away from my direction.
The danger is not that the sons never receive it but that they leave it behind. The line restates the first as a prohibition: it is good, so do not drop it.
לקח · leqach · what is received
From laqach, to take. Teaching seen from the learner's side: something handed over to be taken. The verb comes in verse 10 ('accept').
עזב · azav · leave, forsake
To leave behind something you had. The same verb is used of wisdom herself in verse 6.
תורה · torah · direction, instruction
Not musar as in verse 1 but torah, from yarah, to point the way. The father's teaching is called his torah.
NASB uses 'instruction' for two different Hebrew words in verses 1 and 2. In verse 1 it is musar (discipline); here it is torah (direction, teaching).
Proverbs 4:3
I was once a child too, my own father's son. I was little, and my mother loved me as if I were her only one.
For I too was a son to my father,
The father explains where his teaching comes from. He once stood where his sons stand now, so he is passing on something received, not something invented.
tender, and the only one in my mother's eyes.
He was young and soft, and treasured by his mother as if he were her only child. The point is that this teaching was given out of love, to a child who was dearly loved.
בן · ben · son
The speaker who says 'my son' through the book was himself someone's son. The chain of teaching is the point of the verse.
רך · rak · soft, young
Soft, delicate, not yet hardened. David uses the same word of the young Solomon in 1 Chronicles 22:5 and 29:1.
יחיד · yachid · only, uniquely loved
The word for Isaac in Genesis 22:2. It can mean an only child or one cherished as if he were the only one.
Proverbs 4:4
My father taught me. He said, Hold on to my words with all your heart. Do what I tell you, and you will live.
He taught me, and he said to me:
The grandfather's words now begin and run to verse 9. The father quotes rather than summarises, so his sons hear the same sentences he heard.
'Let your heart grip my words;
The first instruction is about the heart, not the ear. The words are to be seized and held by the inner person, where decisions are made.
keep my commands, and live.
Two commands, the second being the result of the first: keep them and you will live. Life here is more than survival; it is the full, secure life the book keeps promising.
ירה · yarah · point out, teach
The verb that torah (verse 2) comes from. To teach is to point out the way to go. It returns in verse 11.
לב · lev · inner self, mind and will
In Hebrew the heart is where you think and decide, not only where you feel. The chapter comes back to it in verses 21 and 23.
תמך · tamak · grasp, hold fast
To grasp and keep hold of, as Aaron and Hur held up Moses' hands (Exodus 17:12).
שמר · shamar · keep, guard
To watch over as a guard or keeper does. Keeping a command means protecting it from being lost, and doing it.
מצוה · mitsvah · command
A direct order from someone with authority. The father's teaching is not offered as a suggestion.
חיה · chayah · live
An imperative used as a promise: do this and live. The identical line stands in Proverbs 7:2.
Proverbs 4:5
Get wisdom! Learn to understand! Do not forget what I say, and do not drift away from it.
Get wisdom! Get insight!
Two short commands with the same verb, the verb for buying. Wisdom is not inherited automatically, even from a wise father; each person has to go and acquire it.
Do not forget, and do not lean away from the words of my mouth.
Two ways of losing it are named. Forgetting is passive loss over time; leaning away is active drift toward something else. Both are forbidden.
קנה · qanah · get, buy
The ordinary word for buying in the market. It implies a price, which verse 7 will name.
חכמה · chokmah · skill at living
Practical skill, the word used of craftsmen. From here to verse 9 wisdom is spoken of as 'her', a woman to be won and loved.
שכח · shakach · forget
In Hebrew forgetting is not only a lapse of memory but ceasing to act on something.
נטה · natah · lean, bend aside
To stretch or bend in a direction. The same verb is used for inclining the ear in verse 20 and for veering right or left in verse 27.
אמר · emer · saying, utterance
From amar, to say. Spoken sayings: the teaching reaches the son through his father's actual voice.
Proverbs 4:6
Stay with wisdom, and she will keep you safe. Love her, and she will watch over you.
Do not leave her, and she will keep you;
Wisdom is now a woman who repays loyalty. Stay with her and she stands guard over you. The protection is the natural result of living wisely.
love her, and she will watch over you.
This goes a step further than the first line: not just staying but loving. Wisdom kept grudgingly as a rule does less for you than wisdom you actually want.
עזב · azav · leave, forsake
The verb of verse 2. It is also used of a husband leaving a wife, which fits the picture of wisdom as a woman.
שמר · shamar · keep, guard
In verse 4 the son keeps the commands. Here the direction reverses: wisdom keeps him.
אהב · ahav · love
Affection and chosen loyalty together. Wisdom is to be loved as a person is, not just used.
נצר · natsar · watch, preserve
To keep watch like a sentry over a vineyard or city. The twin of shamar; it is the verb of verse 23.
Proverbs 4:7
Here is the first step to being wise: go and get wisdom! Even if it costs you everything you have, learn to understand.
The starting point of wisdom: get wisdom;
It sounds circular, and that is the point. The first wise act is deciding to go after wisdom. You do not need to be wise already, only to want it enough to start.
and at the cost of everything you have got, get insight.
This names the price. Whatever else you own or acquire, trade it for this if you must. The line raises the first: not only begin, but pay whatever it takes.
ראשית · reshit · start and chief part
First in order and first in importance, as in Proverbs 1:7 and Genesis 1:1.
קנה · qanah · get, buy
Third and fourth use of the verb in three verses. The grandfather's whole lesson can be reduced to this one word.
קנין · qinyan · what one has acquired
A noun from qanah. The Hebrew plays on it: with all your getting, get insight.
בינה · binah · insight
The partner of wisdom, as in verses 1 and 5: the power to tell things apart.
The first line is very compressed, literally 'beginning of wisdom, get wisdom'. It can be read as 'the first step in wisdom is to get it' or as 'wisdom is the chief thing, so get it'. In the second line 'with all your possessions' can mean at the price of all you own, or along with everything else you acquire.
Proverbs 4:8
Treat wisdom as something precious, and she will lift you up. Hug her close, and she will make people respect you.
Hold her high, and she will lift you up;
What you raise raises you. If you treat wisdom as precious, she gives you standing among people.
she will bring you honour when you embrace her.
The picture becomes close and personal: wisdom held in the arms like a beloved wife. The result is honour, real weight in the eyes of others.
סלל · salal · lift up, esteem highly
The root means to heap or raise up, as in building up a highway. This intensive form occurs only here: set her up high.
רום · rum · raise high
To be high. Paired with the first verb: lift her and she lifts you.
כבד · kabed · give weight, honour
The root means heavy. To honour someone is to give them weight; it is the verb of the fifth commandment.
חבק · chabaq · clasp, hug
To clasp in the arms. Proverbs 5:20 uses the same verb for the wrong embrace.
Proverbs 4:9
On your head she will put a beautiful crown of flowers. She will hand you a shining crown.
She will set a garland of grace on your head;
Wisdom crowns the person who embraces her. The wreath is the mark of an honoured guest or a bridegroom at a feast.
she will hand you a crown of splendour.'
The second line moves from a wreath to a crown. This closes the grandfather's speech: the cost named in verse 7 ends in public honour.
לוית חן · livyat chen · wreath of favour
The exact phrase of Proverbs 1:9, where it described the parents' teaching. Chen is grace, the quality that draws favour.
מגן · magan · hand over, bestow
A rare verb meaning to deliver into someone's hand, as in Genesis 14:20.
עטרת תפארת · ateret tif'eret · crown of splendour
Atarah is a crown or wreath; tif'eret is beauty that brings glory. The phrase returns in Proverbs 16:31 for grey hair.
Wreaths and crowns were worn at feasts and weddings and given to people being honoured. A bridegroom wore a crown on his wedding day (Song of Songs 3:11), which fits wisdom pictured here as a woman to be embraced.
Proverbs 4:10
Listen, my child, and take in what I say. Then you will live for many years.
Hear, my son, and take in what I say,
The father now speaks in his own voice and starts a second speech. Two steps are asked: hear it, then take it as your own.
and the years of your life will be many.
This is the result. As a general rule the wise life is the longer one, because it avoids the things that cut lives short, which verses 14 to 19 are about to describe.
שמע · shama · hear and heed
The opening command of verse 1, now addressed to one son.
לקח · laqach · take, receive
The verb behind 'teaching' (leqach) in verse 2. The father gives; the son must take.
אמר · emer · saying, utterance
The same noun as 'words of my mouth' in verse 5.
חיים · chayyim · life
Always plural in Hebrew, suggesting life in its fullness. Here it is measured in years; in verses 13, 22 and 23 it is more than length.
Proverbs 4:11
I have shown you the way of wisdom. I have led you along straight paths.
I have pointed you along the way of wisdom;
The father looks back on what he has already done. He has shown his son which road wisdom travels. The son cannot say nobody told him.
I have walked you along straight tracks.
More than pointing: he has led him on it. The tracks are straight, meaning both morally upright and free of dangerous bends.
ירה · yarah · point out, teach
The verb of verse 4. The father has done for his son what his father did for him.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
A road, and so a course of life. The rest of this speech compares two of them.
דרך · darak · tread, cause to walk
The verb that derek comes from: to tread. Literally, I have made you tread the straight tracks.
ישר · yosher · straightness
From yashar, straight. A straight road is the Hebrew picture of honest conduct.
מעגל · ma'gal · wagon track
A track worn by cart wheels, related to the word for a cart. A rut is made by repeated travel, so it pictures settled habit.
Proverbs 4:12
When you walk on them, nothing will get in your way. Even if you run, you will not trip.
When you walk, your stride will not be cramped;
On the straight track there is room to step freely. The wise life is not the narrow, restricted one people expect; it is the one with nothing in the way.
and if you run, you will not trip.
This goes further: even at speed, under pressure, you stay on your feet. Running is where a bad road shows itself.
צעד · tsa'ad · step, stride
A single pace. Life is pictured as taken one step at a time.
צרר · tsarar · be narrow, cramped
To be tight or hemmed in. The noun for distress in Proverbs 1:27 comes from this root.
רוץ · ruts · run
In Proverbs 1:16 the sinners' feet run to evil. Here running is safe because the road is right.
כשל · kashal · stumble, trip
To trip and fall. The word comes back twice for the wicked, in verses 16 and 19.
Proverbs 4:13
Hold on tight to what you have been taught, and do not let go. Guard it well, because it is your life.
Grip discipline hard; do not loosen your hold.
The command is physical: clamp your hand on it and do not relax. Correction is exactly the thing people let slip, because it is uncomfortable.
Watch over her, because she is your life.
This gives the reason. Discipline is not an extra added to life; losing it means losing life itself, so it deserves a guard.
חזק · chazaq · seize, hold firmly
The root means to be strong. In this form: grasp with strength.
מוסר · musar · discipline, correction
The word of verse 1. What was to be heard there is to be gripped here.
רפה · raphah · slacken, drop
To go slack, to let the hands drop. The opposite of chazaq.
נצר · natsar · watch, preserve
In verse 6 wisdom watches over the son. Here he is told to watch over her.
חיים · chayyim · life
Not 'she leads to life' but 'she is your life'.
Musar is a masculine noun, yet 'her' and 'she' are feminine. The father slides from discipline to wisdom herself, the woman of verses 6 to 9. English keeps the feminine but cannot show the shift.
Proverbs 4:14
Do not set foot on the path of people who do wrong. Do not walk along the road that bad people take.
Do not set foot on the path of the wicked,
The warning starts at the entrance. The safest way not to end up where the wicked end up is never to take the first step onto their path.
and do not stride along the road of evil people.
If you have entered, do not keep going. The second line covers the next stage: progress along the road.
בוא · bo · come in, enter
The first step in. The prohibition is placed at the threshold.
ארח · orach · path, course
A travelled path; a poetic partner of derek. The righteous have an orach too, in verse 18.
רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked
One who is in the wrong before God and people; the standing opposite of the tsaddiq, the righteous.
אשר · ashar · step forward, advance
To go straight on, to advance. The danger is making steady progress in the wrong direction.
רע · ra · bad, harmful
The broad word for bad, here in the plural for people who do harm.
Proverbs 4:15
Leave that road alone. Do not go on it. Turn away from it and keep walking.
Leave it alone; do not travel on it;
The father piles up commands, four in one verse, because one is not enough for a temptation this strong. First: drop it, and do not cross onto it.
swerve away from it and keep going.
Then: turn off and move past. Do not stop to look. The answer to this road is distance, not careful handling.
פרע · para · let go, leave alone
To let loose or let go. In Proverbs 1:25 fools did this to wisdom's advice; here it is the right thing to do to the evil road.
עבר · avar · pass, cross over
Used twice in the verse: do not pass along it, but pass on by.
שטה · satah · turn aside, swerve
A rare verb for turning off course. Proverbs 7:25 uses it for a heart swerving toward the immoral woman; here the swerve is the right one.
Proverbs 4:16
Those people cannot sleep until they have done something bad. They lie awake unless they have made someone fall.
For they cannot sleep unless they have done harm;
This is why the road must be avoided. For these people wrongdoing has become a need. An ordinary person loses sleep after doing wrong; they lose sleep if they have not.
their sleep is stolen unless they have brought someone down.
The second line is more specific: what they need is a victim. Sleep that is 'robbed' from the robbers is a grim joke.
ישן · yashen · sleep
Sleep is the picture of a mind at rest. Theirs rests only after doing damage.
רעע · ra'a · do harm
The verb from ra, bad. To cause harm or injury.
גזל · gazal · seize, rob
To tear away by force, the normal word for robbery. Here their own sleep is what gets robbed.
כשל · kashal · stumble, trip
The son will not stumble (verse 12). These people exist to trip others.
The written Hebrew text reads 'unless they stumble'; the traditional reading, followed by NASB, is the causative 'unless they make someone stumble', which fits the first line.
Proverbs 4:17
Doing wrong is like their bread, and hurting people is like their drink. They live on it every day.
For they eat the bread of wickedness
Bread is the daily staple. Wrongdoing is what these people live on: either it is how they get their food, or it is their food itself, the thing they are nourished by.
and drink the wine of violence.
Bread and wine together make a full meal. Violence is their drink, taken in as routinely and with as much pleasure as wine at the table.
לחם · lechem · bread, food
Bread, and so food in general. The verb 'eat' here is from the same root, so the Hebrew sounds like 'they bread on the bread of wickedness'.
רשע · resha · wrongdoing, guilt
The abstract noun beside rasha, the wicked person of verse 14.
יין · yayin · wine
The ordinary drink at a meal and at a feast.
חמס · chamas · violent wrong
Brutal injury to others. The word that describes the earth before the flood (Genesis 6:11).
The phrases can mean bread and wine obtained by wickedness and violence, or wickedness and violence consumed as bread and wine. The Hebrew allows both and probably intends both.
Proverbs 4:18
The path of people who do right is like the first light of morning. It gets brighter and brighter until the full light of day.
But the path of the righteous is like the first glow of light,
The other road. It begins like daybreak: not full light yet, but real light, and unmistakably the start of something.
growing brighter and brighter until the day is at full strength.
The picture is of steady increase from dawn to noon. The righteous person sees more clearly the further he goes. His road does not get darker with age.
ארח · orach · path, course
The same word as the path of the wicked in verse 14. Two paths with the same name and opposite light.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right
A person who is right with God and deals rightly with others.
נגה · nogah · brightness, glow
Shining or radiance. With 'light' it means the gleam of early morning.
אור · or · light, give light
The Hebrew says 'going and shining', an idiom for something that keeps on increasing.
נכון היום · nekon hayyom · the firm part of day
Literally 'the established of the day', from kun, to be firm: the point when daylight stands fixed at its height, noon.
Proverbs 4:19
But the road of bad people is like the darkest night. They trip and fall, and they cannot even tell what they fell over.
The road of the wicked is like deep darkness;
The contrast with verse 18. There is no dawn on this road at all. It is not dim but black.
they do not know what they stumble over.
This explains what the darkness does. They fall and cannot even tell what tripped them, so they cannot learn from it and avoid it next time.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
The way of wisdom (verse 11) and the way of the wicked are both derek. Everyone is on one.
אפלה · afelah · thick darkness
A stronger word than ordinary dark. It is used for the plague of darkness in Egypt (Exodus 10:22).
ידע · yada · know by experience
Verse 1 called the sons to know insight. The wicked do not even know what is knocking them down.
כשל · kashal · stumble, trip
Third use. Those who lived to make others stumble (verse 16) now stumble themselves.
Proverbs 4:20
My child, pay close attention to my words. Lean in and listen to what I say.
My son, pay close attention to my words;
A third speech begins with the same call for attention. From here to verse 27 the father names one part of the body after another.
bend your ear to what I say.
The ear comes first. Bending the ear is the posture of someone leaning in to catch every word. Everything else in the speech depends on this.
קשב · qashav · listen alertly
The verb of verse 1.
דבר · davar · word, matter
The common word for a word or a thing said.
נטה · natah · lean, bend aside
The verb of verse 5, where the son was told not to lean away. Here he is told which way to lean.
אזן · ozen · ear
The first of the body parts in this speech. Wisdom enters through the ear.
Proverbs 4:21
Never let them out of your sight. Keep them deep inside your heart.
Do not let them slip out of your sight;
Now the eyes. The words are to be kept in view like something you will not take your eyes off, because what leaves your sight soon leaves your mind.
keep them deep inside your heart.
From the eyes inward to the heart. The words pass from being looked at to being stored at the centre, where they can shape decisions.
לוז · luz · bend away, depart
To turn aside or slip off. The same verb and the same command stand in Proverbs 3:21.
עין · ayin · eye
Literally 'from your eyes'. The eyes come back in verse 25.
שמר · shamar · keep, guard
The verb of verse 4.
לבב · levav · inner self, mind and will
A longer form of lev with the same meaning. 'In the midst of' puts the words at the very centre of the person.
Proverbs 4:22
They give life to those who find them, and they make the whole body healthy.
For they are life to those who find them,
The reason for keeping them. The words give life, but only to those who find them, which means they have to be looked for and taken hold of.
and healing for their whole body.
The benefit reaches the body, not only the soul. A wisely ordered life is healthier in plain physical terms, and it spares a person many self-inflicted injuries.
חיים · chayyim · life
As in verse 13: the words do not just lead to life, they are life.
מצא · matsa · find, reach
To come upon after seeking. Proverbs 8:35 says of wisdom, whoever finds me finds life.
מרפא · marpe · healing, remedy
From rapha, to heal. A cure or restored health.
בשר · basar · flesh
Flesh: the physical person. Hebrew does not split the spiritual benefit of wisdom from the bodily one.
Proverbs 4:23
Above everything else you look after, guard your heart. All of your life flows out of it, like water from a spring.
More than anything else you guard, guard your heart,
This is the centre of the speech. People guard money, property and reputation. The father says the heart needs a tighter guard than any of them.
because out of it come the outflows of life.
The reason. The heart is like a spring: whatever a person says and does flows from it. If the source is fouled, everything downstream is fouled, which is why verses 24 to 27 go on to mouth, eyes and feet.
נצר · natsar · watch, preserve
The sentry's verb from verses 6 and 13, now aimed at your own inner life.
לב · lev · inner self, mind and will
The seat of thinking, wanting and choosing. To guard it is to watch what you let shape your thoughts and desires.
משמר · mishmar · a guard, thing guarded
From shamar. It means a guard post, a watch, or what is kept under guard.
תוצאות · tots'ot · outgoings, outflows
From yatsa, to go out. Elsewhere the word is used for the points where a boundary line runs out. Here: where life issues from.
חיים · chayyim · life
The last 'life' in the chapter. Its source is located inside the person.
'With all diligence' is literally 'more than every guarding'. It can mean 'above everything else that you guard' or 'with every kind of watchfulness'. The first is the more natural reading of the Hebrew.
Proverbs 4:24
Get rid of any lies and twisted talk from your mouth. Keep that kind of talk far away from you.
Remove crookedness of mouth from yourself,
The mouth comes first after the heart, because speech is the first thing to flow out of it. Twisted speech is talk that bends the truth; it is to be taken off and put away.
and put bent lips far from you.
The same command in other words, with 'far' added. Do not merely reduce dishonest talk; put distance between yourself and it.
סור · sur · turn aside, remove
In this form: make something depart. The same form is used of the foot in verse 27.
עקשות · iqqeshut · crookedness
From a root meaning twisted. The opposite of the straight tracks of verse 11.
פה · peh · mouth
The father's mouth gave straight words (verse 5). The son's mouth must not give twisted ones.
לזות · lezut · bending aside
From luz, the verb of verse 21. Speech that veers off the straight line.
שפה · saphah · lip
Literally 'lips'. Hebrew names the organ where English names the activity.
Proverbs 4:25
Keep your eyes looking straight ahead. Fix them on what is right in front of you.
Let your eyes look straight ahead,
Now the eyes again, this time for direction. A walker who keeps looking sideways drifts sideways. The eyes are where distraction and desire get in.
and let your gaze go straight in front of you.
The second line repeats the first for emphasis. Fix on where you are going and do not let what is beside the road pull your attention.
עין · ayin · eye
In verse 21 the eyes held the father's words. Here they hold the road.
נכח · nokach · straight in front
What lies directly opposite. The same word in Proverbs 5:21 says a person's ways are right in front of the LORD's eyes.
עפעפים · af'appayim · eyelids
Literally 'eyelids', a poetic partner for eyes.
ישר · yashar · be straight
The verb form: let them go straight. The same root as the upright tracks of verse 11.
Proverbs 4:26
Look carefully at where you are about to step and make the path smooth. Then all your ways will be steady.
Make the track for your foot level,
Last come the feet, which stand for actual conduct. Look at where you are about to step and clear the ground first; think about a course of action before taking it.
and all your ways will be firm.
The result. A person who examines his steps ends up with a settled, reliable life in place of a string of slips and recoveries.
פלס · palas · make level, weigh
Related to the word for a balance scale. To level a road, or to weigh something up. It returns in Proverbs 5:6 and 5:21.
מעגל · ma'gal · wagon track
The cart rut of verse 11. Your habits are the track your feet run in.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
Plural: every course you take.
כון · kun · be firm, fixed
To stand solid. The same root described the day at full strength in verse 18.
Palas can mean 'make level' or 'weigh, consider'. So the line is either 'smooth the path for your feet' or 'think carefully about the path for your feet'. NASB's 'watch' follows the second sense.
Proverbs 4:27
Do not turn off to the right or to the left. Keep your foot away from what is bad.
Do not lean to the right or to the left;
Once the straight path is found, stay on it. Right and left cover every possible detour. The phrase echoes how Israel was told to keep God's law (Deuteronomy 5:32).
take your foot away from evil.
This says what lies off the path on either side. Any swerve from the straight road is a step toward harm, so the foot is to be pulled back.
נטה · natah · lean, bend aside
The verb of verses 5 and 20. The chapter's last use: no leaning off course at all.
ימין · yamin · right hand
With 'left', a fixed expression for any deviation whatever.
סור · sur · turn aside, remove
The form used in verse 24 for removing a crooked mouth. A different verb from the 'turn' of the first line.
רגל · regel · foot
The last body part in the list that began with the ear in verse 20.
רע · ra · bad, harmful
The word used for the evil people of verse 14. Their road is what the foot is being kept from.