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Friday, August 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

Myles Coverdale Bible

Proverbs 27:19

Like as in one water there apeare dyuerse faces, eue so dyuerse men haue dyuerse hertes.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Friendship;   The Topic Concordance - Resurrection;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Greek Versions of Ot;   Proverbs, Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- The Jewish Encyclopedia - Mirror;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
As water reflects the face,so the heart reflects the person.
Hebrew Names Version
As water reflects a face, So a man's heart reflects the man.
King James Version
As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
English Standard Version
As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.
New American Standard Bible
As in water a face reflects the face, So the heart of a person reflects the person.
New Century Version
As water reflects your face, so your mind shows what kind of person you are.
Amplified Bible
As in water face reflects face, So the heart of man reflects man.
World English Bible
As water reflects a face, So a man's heart reflects the man.
Geneva Bible (1587)
As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
Legacy Standard Bible
As in water face reflects face,So the heart of man reflects man.
Berean Standard Bible
As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the true man.
Contemporary English Version
You see your face in a mirror and your thoughts in the minds of others.
Complete Jewish Bible
Just as water reflects the face, so one human heart reflects another.
Darby Translation
As [in] water face [answereth] to face, so the heart of man to man.
Easy-to-Read Version
Just as you can see your own face reflected in water, so your heart reflects the kind of person you are.
George Lamsa Translation
As faces do not resemble faces, so hearts do not resemble hearts.
Good News Translation
It is your own face that you see reflected in the water and it is your own self that you see in your heart.
Lexham English Bible
As the waters reflect face to face, so the heart of a person reflects the person.
Literal Translation
As face reflects face in the water, so the heart of man reflects a man.
American Standard Version
As in water face answereth to face, So the heart of man to man.
Bible in Basic English
Like face looking at face in water, so are the hearts of men to one another.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
King James Version (1611)
As in water face answereth to face: so the heart of man to man.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Like as in one water there appeare diuers faces: euen so diuers men haue diuers heartes.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
The way of the wicked and the foot of the transgressor shall perish in an evil day.
English Revised Version
As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
As the cheris of men biholdinge schynen in watris; so the hertis of men ben opyn to prudent men.
Update Bible Version
As in water face [answers] to face, So the heart of man to man.
Webster's Bible Translation
As in water face [answereth] to face, so the heart of man to man.
New English Translation
As in water the face is reflected as a face, so a person's heart reflects the person.
New King James Version
As in water face reflects face, So a man's heart reveals the man.
New Living Translation
As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.
New Life Bible
As water acts as a mirror to a face, so the heart of man acts as a mirror to a man.
New Revised Standard
Just as water reflects the face, so one human heart reflects another.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
As in water, face answereth to face, so, the heart of man to man.
Douay-Rheims Bible
As the faces of them that look therein, shine in the water, so the hearts of men are laid open to the wise.
Revised Standard Version
As in water face answers to face, so the mind of man reflects the man.
Young's Literal Translation
As [in] water the face [is] to face, So the heart of man to man.
THE MESSAGE
Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
As in water face reflects face, So the heart of man reflects man.

Contextual Overview

19 Like as in one water there apeare dyuerse faces, eue so dyuerse men haue dyuerse hertes.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

in: James 1:22-25

so: Genesis 6:5, Psalms 33:15, Mark 7:21

Cross-References

Genesis 25:25
The first that came forth, was reed, all rough as an hyde, and they called him Esau.
Genesis 27:3
Now therfore take thy geer, thy quyuer and thy bowe, and get the forth to the felde, and take me some venyson,
Genesis 27:4
and make me meate (soch as I loue) and brynge it me herein, that I may eate, yt my soule maye blesse the, before I dye.
Genesis 27:21
The sayde Isaac vnto Iacob: Come neare my sonne, that I maye fele the, whether thou be my sonne Esau or not.
Genesis 27:23
And he knew him not, for his handes were rough like as ye handes of his brother Esau. And he blessed him.
Genesis 27:24
And he sayde vnto him: art thou my sonsonne Esau? He answered: Yee I am.
Genesis 27:25
Then sayde he: Bringe me here then to eate of thy venyson my sonne, that my soule maye blesse the. Then he brought it him, and he ate: and he brought him wyne also, and he dranke.
1 Kings 13:18
He sayde vnto him: I myselfe am a prophet as well as thou, and an angell hath spoken with me by ye worde of the LORDE, and saide: Bringe him againe with the, that he maye eate bred, and drynke water. But he lyed vnto him,
1 Kings 14:2
and Ieroboam saide vnto his wyfe: Get the vp, and disguise the, so that no man perceaue that thou art Ieroboams wyfe, and go vnto Silo: beholde, there is the prophet Ahias, which promysed me yt I shulde be kynge ouer this people:
Isaiah 28:15
For ye coforte yor selues thus: Tush, death & we are at a poynte, & as for hell, we haue made a codicion with it: that though there breake out eny sore plage, it shal not come vpon vs. For with disceate wil we escape, and with nymblenes will we defende or selues.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

As in water face [answereth] to face,.... As water is as a looking glass, in which a man may behold his own face and another's; or as the face in the water answers to the face of a man, and there is a great likeness between them. All things through water appear greater, as Seneca m observes, and so more clear and plain;

so the heart of man to man; one man's heart may be seen and discerned in some measure by another, as by his countenance; for though, as the poet n says, "frontis nulla fides", yet the countenance is often the index of the mind, though not an infallible one; wrath and anger in the breast may be seen in the face, as were in Cain's; thus Jacob saw some resentment at him in the mind of Laban, and judged he had some design of mischief against him by the change of his countenance; also what is in the heart of man is discerned by what comes out of it, by his words, and also by his actions; yea, a man may know in a good measure what is in another man's heart, by what he finds in his own: the word of God is a glass, or medium of vision, and like water, in which a man's face is seen, through which a man sees his own heart; the law is a glass, in which an enlightened person sees not only the perfections of God, the nature of righteousness, but also his sin, and the sinfulness of it; this glass mother magnifies nor multiplies his sins, but sets them in a true light before him, by which he discerns heart sins, and sees and knows the plague of his heart; and the Gospel is a glass, wherein he beholds the glory of Christ, sees and can discern whether Christ is formed in him, and he has the grace of the Spirit of God wrought in his soul, as faith, hope, love, repentance, humility, self-denial, c. moreover, as the face seen in the water is similar to a man's face, so the hearts of men are alike, not merely in a natural sense, see

Psalms 33:15 but in a moral and spiritual sense the hearts of unregenerate men are alike, and answer to each other; for they are all equally corrupted, one and depraved; the heart of every man is desperately wicked; the imaginations of the thoughts of the hearts or wicked men, one and all of them, are only evil, and that continually; their affections are inordinately the same, they love and hate the same persons and things; their minds and consciences are all defiled; their understandings are darkened; their wills are averse to that which is good, and bent on that which is evil: and so the hearts of good men are alike; they have all one heart and one way given them; their experiences agree as to the work of grace and conversion; they are all made sensible of sin, the evil of it, and danger by it; they are all brought off of their own righteousness, and are led to Christ to depend on him alone for righteousness, pardon, and eternal life; they are partakers of the same promises in the Gospel, and have the same enemies to grapple with, and the same temptations, trials, and exercises from sin, Satan, and the world; and they have the same things put into their hearts, the laws of God, the doctrines of Christ, and the several graces of the Spirit of Christ; so that there cannot be a greater likeness between a man's face and that seen in the water, than there is between the heart of one saint and another; the hearts of Old and New Testament saints, and of all in all ages and places, answer to one another. The Targum paraphrases it to a sense quite the reverse,

"as waters and as faces which are not like one to another, so the hearts of the children of men are not like one to another;''

and to the same sense are the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions.

m Nat. Quaest. l. 1. c. 6. n Juvenal. Satyr. 2. v. 8.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As we see our own face when we look on the mirror-like surface of the water, so in every heart of man we may see our own likeness. In spite of all diversities we come upon the common human nature in which we all alike share. Others see in the reference to the reflection in the water the thought that we judge of others by ourselves, find them faithful or the reverse, as we ourselves are.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 27:19. As in water face answereth to face — All men's hearts are pretty nearly alike; water is not more like to water, than one heart is to another. Or, as a man sees his face perfectly reflected by the water, when looking into it; so the wise and penetrating man sees generally what is in the heart of another by considering the general tenor of his words and actions.

"Surely, if each man saw another's heart

There would be no commerce;

All would disperse,

And live apart."

HERBERT.


 
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