Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, July 13th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

Literal Standard Version

Proverbs 23:19

Hear, my son, and be wise, || And make your heart blessed in the way,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Wisdom;   Young Men;   Thompson Chain Reference - Social Duties;   Temperance;   Temperance-Intemperance;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Heart, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Joy;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Heart;   Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Guide;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Listen, my son, and be wise;keep your mind on the right course.
Hebrew Names Version
Listen, my son, and be wise, And keep your heart on the right path!
King James Version
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
English Standard Version
Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.
New American Standard Bible
Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way.
New Century Version
Listen, my child, and be wise. Keep your mind on what is right.
Amplified Bible
Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way [of the LORD].
World English Bible
Listen, my son, and be wise, And keep your heart on the right path!
Geneva Bible (1587)
O thou my sonne, heare, and bee wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
Legacy Standard Bible
You, my son, listen and be wise,And direct your heart in the way.
Berean Standard Bible
Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course.
Contemporary English Version

-15-

Listen to me, my children! Be wise and have enough sense to follow the right path.
Complete Jewish Bible
You, my son: listen, be wise, and set your mind on the right way.
Darby Translation
Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.
Easy-to-Read Version
So listen, my son, and be wise. Always be careful to follow the right path.
George Lamsa Translation
Hear, my son, and be wise, and fasten my counsel in your heart.
Good News Translation

-15-

Listen, my child, be wise and give serious thought to the way you live.
Lexham English Bible
You, my child, hear and be wise, and direct your heart on the road.
Literal Translation
My son, hear, you, and be wise, and advance your heart in the way.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
My sonne, ue eare & be wyse, so shal thine hert prospere in the waye.
American Standard Version
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way.
Bible in Basic English
Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way.
King James Version (1611)
Heare thou, my sonne, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
My sonne geue eare and be wyse, and set straight thyne heart in the way [of the Lorde.]
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
023
English Revised Version
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Mi sone, here thou, and be thou wijs, and dresse thi soule in the weie.
Update Bible Version
Hear, my son, and be wise, And guide your heart in the way.
Webster's Bible Translation
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way.
New English Translation
Listen, my child, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right way.
New King James Version
Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way.
New Living Translation
My child, listen and be wise: Keep your heart on the right course.
New Life Bible
Listen, my son, and be wise. Lead your heart in the way.
New Revised Standard
Hear, my child, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Hear, thou, my son, and be wise, and lead forward, in duty, thy heart.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.
Revised Standard Version
Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way.
Young's Literal Translation
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And make happy in the way thy heart,
THE MESSAGE
15 Oh listen, dear child—become wise; point your life in the right direction. Don't drink too much wine and get drunk; don't eat too much food and get fat. Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way.

Contextual Overview

19Hear, my son, and be wise, || And make your heart blessed in the way,20Do not become drunk with wine, || Among gluttonous ones of flesh, 21For the drunkard and glutton become poor, || And drowsiness clothes with rags. 22Listen to your father, who begot you, || And do not despise your mother when she has become old. 23Buy truth, and do not sell, || Wisdom, and instruction, and understanding, 24The father of the righteous rejoices greatly, || The begetter of the wise rejoices in him. 25Your father and your mother rejoice, || Indeed, she bearing you is joyful. 26Give, my son, your heart to me, || And let your eyes watch my ways. 27For a harlot [is] a deep ditch, || And a strange woman [is] a narrow pit. 28She also, as catching prey, lies in wait, || And she increases the treacherous among men.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

and guide: Proverbs 23:12, Proverbs 23:26, Proverbs 4:10-23

in the way: That is "in the right way.

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 21:20 - he is a glutton Proverbs 4:23 - Keep Proverbs 28:7 - but Isaiah 5:22 - mighty Luke 15:13 - wasted

Cross-References

Genesis 3:19
by the sweat of your face you eat bread until your return to the ground, for you have been taken out of it, for dust you [are], and to dust you return."
Genesis 23:9
and he gives to me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which [is] in the extremity of his field; for full money does he give it to me, in your midst, for a possession of a burying-place."
Genesis 23:10
And Ephron is sitting in the midst of the sons of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answers Abraham in the ears of the sons of Heth, of all those entering the gate of his city, saying,
Genesis 47:30
and I have lain with my fathers, and you have carried me out of Egypt, and buried me in their burying-place." And he says, "I do according to your word";
Genesis 50:13
and his sons carry him away to the land of Canaan, and bury him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying-place, from Ephron the Hittite, on the front of Mamre.
Genesis 50:25
And Joseph causes the sons of Israel to swear, saying, "God certainly inspects you, and you have brought up my bones from this [place]."
Job 30:23
For I have known You bring me back [to] death, || And [to] the house appointed for all living.
Ecclesiastes 6:3
If a man begets one hundred, and lives many years, and is great, because they are the days of his years, and his soul is not satisfied from the goodness, and also he has not had a grave, I have said, "Better than he [is] the untimely birth."
Ecclesiastes 12:5
Also of that which is high they are afraid, || And of the low places in the way, || And the almond-tree is despised, || And the grasshopper has become a burden, || And want is increased, || For man is going to his perpetual home, || And the mourners have gone around through the street.
Ecclesiastes 12:7
And the dust returns to the earth as it was, || And the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Hear thou, my son, and be wise,.... Hear the instruction of a father, of the word of Wisdom, of the ministers of the Gospel, which is the way to be wise unto salvation; faith comes by hearing; spiritual wisdom, and an increase of it; the Spirit of God, and his gifts and graces;

and guide thine heart in the way; in the way of the Lord, in the way of wisdom and understanding, in the way of truth and faith, in the way of religious worship, in the way of the commandments and ordinances of the Lord; in all which the heart should be guided and directed, or otherwise it will be of no avail.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Another continuous exhortation rather than a collection of maxims.

Proverbs 23:16

The teacher rejoices when the disciple’s heart Proverbs 23:15 receives wisdom, and yet more when his lips can utter it.

Reins - See Job 19:27 note.

Proverbs 23:17

Envy sinners - Compare in Psalms 37:1; Psalms 73:3; the feeling which looks half-longingly at the prosperity of evil doers. Some connect the verb “envy” with the second clause, “envy not sinners, but envy, emulate, the fear of the Lord.”

Proverbs 23:18

Or, For if there is an end (hereafter), thine expectations shall not be cut off. There is an implied confidence in immortality.

Proverbs 23:20

Riotous eaters of flesh - The word is the same as “glutton” in Proverbs 23:21 and Deuteronomy 21:20.

Proverbs 23:21

The three forms of evil that destroy reputation and tempt to waste are brought together.

Drowsiness - Specially the drunken sleep, heavy and confused.

Proverbs 23:26

Observe - Another reading gives, “let thine eyes delight in my ways.”

Proverbs 23:28

As for a prey - Better as in the margin.

The transgressors - Better, the treacherous,” those that attack men treacherously.

Proverbs 23:29

Woe ... sorrow - The words in the original are interjections, probably expressing distress. The sharp touch of the satirist reproduces the actual inarticulate utterances of drunkenness.

Proverbs 23:30

Mixed wine - Wine flavored with aromatic spices, that increase its stimulating properties Isaiah 5:22. There is a touch of sarcasm in “go to seek.” The word, elsewhere used of diligent search after knowledge Proverbs 25:2; Job 11:7; Psalms 139:1, is used here of the investigations of connoisseurs in wine meeting to test its qualities.

Proverbs 23:31

His color - literally, “its eye,” the clear brightness, or the beaded bubbles on which the wine drinker looks with complacency.

It moveth itself aright - The Hebrew word describes the pellucid stream flowing pleasantly from the wineskin or jug into the goblet or the throat (compare Song of Solomon 7:9), rather than a sparkling wine.

Proverbs 23:32

Adder - Said to be the Cerastes, or horned snake.

Proverbs 23:34

The passage is interesting, as showing the increased familiarity of Israelites with the experiences of sea life (compare Psalms 104:25-26; Psalms 107:23-30).

In the midst of the sea - i. e., When the ship is in the trough of the sea and the man is on the deck. The second clause varies the form of danger, the man is in the “cradle” at the top of the mast, and sleeps there, regardless of the danger.

Proverbs 23:35

The picture ends with the words of the drunkard on waking from his sleep. Unconscious of the excesses of the night, his first thought is to return to his old habit.

When shall I awake ... - Better, when I shall awake I will seek it yet again.


 
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