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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Proverbs 21:4

Proud looks and proud thoughts are sins. They show a person is evil.

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.
Complete Jewish Bible
Haughty looks, a proud heart — what the wicked plow is sin.
Darby Translation
Lofty eyes, and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
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 Proud looks and proud thoughts are sins. They show a person is evil.

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
Sarah said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son. Send them away! When we die, our son Isaac will get everything we have. I don't want that slave woman's son sharing these things with my son Isaac!"
Genesis 21:12
But God said to Abraham, "Don't worry about the boy and the slave woman. Do what Sarah wants. Your descendants will be those who come through Isaac.
Genesis 21:22
Then Abimelech and Phicol spoke with Abraham. Phicol was the commander of Abimelech's army. They said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do.
Genesis 21:23
So make a promise to me here before God. Promise that you will be fair with me and with my children. Promise that you will be kind to me and this country where you have lived. Promise that you will be as kind to me as I have been to you."
Exodus 12:48
If a foreigner living among you wants to share in the Lord 's Passover, he must be circumcised. Then he can share in the meal like any other citizen of Israel. But a man who is not circumcised cannot eat the Passover meal.
Leviticus 12:3
The baby boy must be circumcised on the eighth day.
Deuteronomy 12:32
"You must be careful to do everything I command you. Don't add anything to what I tell you, and don't take anything away.
Luke 1:6
Zechariah and Elizabeth were both good people who pleased God. They did everything the Lord commanded, always following his instructions completely.
Luke 1:59
When the baby was eight days old, they came to circumcise him. They wanted to name him Zechariah because this was his father's name.
Luke 2:21
When the baby was eight days old, he was circumcised, and he was named Jesus. This name was given by the angel before the baby began to grow inside Mary.

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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