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Monday, August 25th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
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Read the Bible

Complete Jewish Bible

Proverbs 21:4

Haughty looks, a proud heart — what the wicked plow is sin.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Pride;   Thompson Chain Reference - Humility-Pride;   Pride;   The Topic Concordance - Heart;   Pride/arrogance;   Sin;   Wickedness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Pride;   Sin;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Plow;   Proverbs, Book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - High;   Look;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The lamp that guides the wicked—haughty eyes and an arrogant heart—is sin.
Hebrew Names Version
A high look, and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.
King James Version
An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
English Standard Version
Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.
New American Standard Bible
Haughty eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.
New Century Version
Proud looks, proud thoughts, and evil actions are sin.
Amplified Bible
Haughty and arrogant eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked [their self-centered pride], is sin [in the eyes of God].
World English Bible
A high look, and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Geneva Bible (1587)
A hautie looke, and a proude heart, which is the light of the wicked, is sinne.
Legacy Standard Bible
Haughty eyes and a proud heart—The fallow ground of the wicked—are sin.
Berean Standard Bible
Haughty eyes and a proud heart-the guides of the wicked-are sin.
Contemporary English Version
Evil people are proud and arrogant, but sin is the only crop they produce.
Darby Translation
Lofty eyes, and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Easy-to-Read Version
Proud looks and proud thoughts are sins. They show a person is evil.
George Lamsa Translation
Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and the posterity of the wicked are sinful.
Good News Translation
Wicked people are controlled by their conceit and arrogance, and this is sinful.
Lexham English Bible
Haughtiness of the eyes and pride of heart, the lamp of the wicked are sin.
Literal Translation
High eyes, a proud heart, and the uncultivated mind of the wicked, is sin.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
A presumptuous loke, a proude stomacke, & the lanterne of the vngodly is synne.
American Standard Version
A high look, and a proud heart, Even the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Bible in Basic English
A high look and a heart of pride, *** Three astrics are used as a sign that one or more Hebrew words, necessary to the sense, have been taken out at some time or other. of the evil-doer is sin.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
A haughty look, and a proud heart--the tillage of the wicked is sin.
King James Version (1611)
An high looke, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sinne.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
An high looke, a proude heart, and the plowing of the vngodly is sinne.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
A high-minded man is stout-hearted in his pride; and the lamp of the wicked is sin.
English Revised Version
An high look, and a proud heart, even the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Enhaunsyng of iyen is alargyng of the herte; the lanterne of wickid men is synne.
Update Bible Version
A high look, and a proud heart, [Even] the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Webster's Bible Translation
A high look, and a proud heart, [and] the plowing of the wicked, [is] sin.
New English Translation
Haughty eyes and a proud heart— the agricultural product of the wicked is sin.
New King James Version
A haughty look, a proud heart,And the plowing [fn] of the wicked are sin.
New Living Translation
Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and evil actions are all sin.
New Life Bible
Eyes lifted high and a proud heart is sin and is the lamp of the sinful.
New Revised Standard
Haughty eyes and a proud heart— the lamp of the wicked—are sin.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Loftiness of eyes, and ambition of heart - the lamp of the lawless, are sin.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Haughtiness of the eyes is the enlarging of the heart: the lamp of the wicked is sin.
Revised Standard Version
Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.
Young's Literal Translation
Loftiness of eyes, and breadth of heart, Tillage of the wicked [is] sin.
THE MESSAGE
Arrogance and pride—distinguishing marks in the wicked— are just plain sin.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Haughty eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.

Contextual Overview

4 Haughty looks, a proud heart — what the wicked plow is sin.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

An high look: Heb. Haughtiness of eyes, Proverbs 6:17, Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 30:13, Psalms 10:4, Isaiah 2:11, Isaiah 2:17, Isaiah 3:16, Luke 18:14, 1 Peter 5:5

and the: Proverbs 21:27, Proverbs 15:8, Romans 14:23

plowing of the wicked: or, light of the wicked

Reciprocal: Leviticus 11:34 - General 2 Samuel 22:28 - but thine Proverbs 15:9 - The way Ezekiel 16:49 - pride Haggai 2:14 - So is this people Zechariah 14:20 - shall there Luke 21:34 - your hearts Titus 1:15 - but

Cross-References

Genesis 21:10
so Sarah said to Avraham, "Throw this slave-girl out! And her son! I will not have this slave-girl's son as your heir along with my son Yitz'chak!"
Genesis 21:12
But God said to Avraham, "Don't be distressed because of the boy and your slave-girl. Listen to everything Sarah says to you, because it is your descendants through Yitz'chak who will be counted.
Genesis 21:22
(vi) At that time Avimelekh and Pikhol the commander of his army spoke to Avraham. They said, "God is with you in everything you do.
Genesis 21:23
Therefore, swear to me here by God that you will never deal falsely with me or with my son or grandson; but according to the kindness with which I have treated you, you will treat me and the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.
Exodus 12:48
If a foreigner staying with you wants to observe Adonai 's Pesach, all his males must be circumcised. Then he may take part and observe it; he will be like a citizen of the land. But no uncircumcised person is to eat it.
Leviticus 12:3
On the eighth day, the baby's foreskin is to be circumcised.
Deuteronomy 12:32
Here are the laws and rulings you are to observe and obey in the land Adonai , the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess as long as you live on earth. You must destroy all the places where the nations you are dispossessing served their gods, whether on high mountains, on hills, or under some leafy tree. Break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, burn up their sacred poles completely and cut down the carved images of their gods. Exterminate their name from that place. "But you are not to treat Adonai your God this way. Rather, you are to come to the place where Adonai your God will put his name. He will choose it from all your tribes; and you will seek out that place, which is where he will live, and go there. You will bring there your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tenths [that you set aside for Adonai ], the offerings that you give, the offerings you have vowed, your voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle and sheep. There you will eat in the presence of Adonai your God; and you will rejoice over everything you set out to do, you and your households, in which Adonai your God has blessed you. You will not do things the way we do them here today, where everyone does whatever in his own opinion seems right; because you haven't yet arrived at the rest and inheritance which Adonai your God is giving you. But when you cross the Yarden and live in the land Adonai your God is having you inherit, and he gives you rest from all your surrounding enemies, so that you are living in safety; (ii) then you will bring all that I am ordering you to the place Adonai your God chooses to have his name live — your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tenths, the offering from your hand, and all your best possessions that you dedicate to Adonai ; and you will rejoice in the presence of Adonai your God — you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves and the Levi staying with you, inasmuch as he has no share or inheritance with you. "Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings just anywhere you see, but do it in the place Adonai will choose in one of your tribal territories; there is where you are to offer your burnt offerings and do everything I order you to do. However, you may slaughter and eat meat wherever you live and whenever you want, in keeping with the degree to which Adonai your God has blessed you. The unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer. But don't eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. "You are not to eat on your own property the tenth of your grain, new wine or olive oil [that you set aside for Adonai ], or the firstborn of your cattle or sheep, or any offering you have vowed, or your voluntary offering, or the offering from your hand. No, you are to eat these in the presence of Adonai your God in the place Adonai your God will choose — you and your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, and the Levi who is your guest; and you are to rejoice before Adonai your God in everything you undertake to do. As long as you are living on your property, take care not to abandon the Levi. "When Adonai your God expands your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I want to eat meat,' simply because you want to eat meat, then you may eat meat, as much as you want. If the place which Adonai your God chooses to place his name is too far away from you; then you are to slaughter animals from your cattle or sheep, which Adonai has given you; and eat on your own property, as much as you want. Eat it as you would gazelle or deer; the unclean and clean alike may eat it. Just take care not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you are not to eat the life with the meat. Don't eat it, but pour it out on the ground like water. Do not eat it, so that things will go well with you and with your children after you, as you do what Adonai sees as right. Only the things set aside for God which you have, and the vows you have vowed to make, you must take and go to the place which Adonai will choose. There you will offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of Adonai your God. The blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of Adonai your God, and you will eat the meat. Obey and pay attention to everything I am ordering you to do, so that things will go well with you and with your descendants after you forever, as you do what Adonai sees as good and right. (iii) "When Adonai your God has cut off ahead of you the nations you are entering in order to dispossess, and when you have dispossessed them and are living in their land; be careful, after they have been destroyed ahead of you, not to be trapped into following them; so that you inquire after their gods and ask, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I want to do the same.' You must not do this to Adonai your God! For they have done to their gods all the abominations that Adonai hates! They even burn up their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods!
Luke 1:6
Both of them were righteous before God, observing all the mitzvot and ordinances of Adonai blamelessly.
Luke 1:59
On the eighth day, they came to do the child's b'rit-milah. They were about to name him Z'kharyah, after his father,
Luke 2:21
On the eighth day, when it was time for his b'rit-milah, he was given the name Yeshua, which is what the angel had called him before his conception.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

An high look, and a proud heart,.... The former is a sign of the latter, and commonly go together, and are both abominable to the Lord; see Psalms 101:5. A man that looks above others, and with disdain upon them, shows that pride reigns in him, and swells his mind with a vain opinion of himself; this may be observed in every self-righteous man; the parable of the Pharisee and publican is a comment upon it; sometimes there may be a proud heart under a disguise of humility; but the pride of the heart is often discovered by the look of the eyes. It may be rendered, "the elevation of the eyes, and the enlargement of the heart" p; but not to be understood in a good sense, of the lifting up of the eyes in prayer to God, with faith and fear; nor of the enlargement of the heart with solid knowledge and wisdom, such as Solomon had; but in a bad sense, of the lofty looks and haughtiness of man towards his fellow creatures, and of his unbounded desires after filthy lucre or sinful lusts: the Targum renders it,

"the swelling of the heart,''

with pride and vanity;

[and] the ploughing of the wicked [is] sin; taken literally; not that it is so in itself; for it is a most useful invention, and exceeding beneficial to mankind, and is to be ascribed to God himself; and of this the Heathens are so sensible, that they have a deity to whom they attribute it, and whom they call Ceres q, from חרש, to plough; it only denotes that all the civil actions of a wicked man, one being put for all, are attended with sin; he sins in all he does. Or, metaphorically, for his schemes, contrivances, and projects, which are the ploughing of his mind; these are all sinful, or tend to that which is so. Some understand this particularly of his high look and proud heart, which are his ploughing and his sin; Ben Melech; and others of his ploughing, or persecuting and oppressing, the poor. The word is sometimes used for a lamp or light, and is so rendered here by some, "the light of the wicked [is] sin" r; their outward happiness and prosperity leads them into sin, involves them in guilt, and so brings them to ruin and destruction: and this way go the Targum: Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions.

p רום עינים ורחב לב "elatio oculorum et latitudo cordis", Piscator, Michaelis, Cocceius, Schultens. q "Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram instituit", Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. r נר רשעים "Incerna impiorum", V. L. Mercerus, Gejerus, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The plowing - The Hebrew word, with a change in its vowel points, may signify either:

(1) the “fallow field,” the “tillage” of Proverbs 13:23, or

(2) the lamp.

According to: (1) the verse would mean, “The outward signs of pride, the proud heart, the broad lands of the wicked, all are evil.” (2) however, belongs, as it were, to the language of the time and of the book Proverbs 13:9; Proverbs 24:20. The “lamp of the wicked” is their outwardly bright prosperity.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 21:4. A high look — The evidence of pride, self-conceit, and vanity. A proud heart, from which the high look, c., come.

And the ploughing — נר ner, lucerna, the lamp, the prosperity and posterity of the wicked is sin - it is evil in the seed, and evil in the root, evil in the branch, and evil in the fruit. They are full of sin themselves, and what they do is sinful.


 
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