the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Proverbs 23:19
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- BridgewayEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
Listen, my son, and be wise;keep your mind on the right course.
Listen, my son, and be wise, And keep your heart on the right path!
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.
Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way.
Listen, my child, and be wise. Keep your mind on what is right.
Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way [of the LORD].
Listen, my son, and be wise, And keep your heart on the right path!
O thou my sonne, heare, and bee wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
You, my son, listen and be wise,And direct your heart in the way.
Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course.
-15-
Listen to me, my children! Be wise and have enough sense to follow the right path.You, my son: listen, be wise, and set your mind on the right way.
Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.
So listen, my son, and be wise. Always be careful to follow the right path.
Hear, my son, and be wise, and fasten my counsel in your heart.
-15-
Listen, my child, be wise and give serious thought to the way you live.You, my child, hear and be wise, and direct your heart on the road.
My son, hear, you, and be wise, and advance your heart in the way.
My sonne, ue eare & be wyse, so shal thine hert prospere in the waye.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way.
Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way.
Heare thou, my sonne, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
My sonne geue eare and be wyse, and set straight thyne heart in the way [of the Lorde.]
023
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
Mi sone, here thou, and be thou wijs, and dresse thi soule in the weie.
Hear, my son, and be wise, And guide your heart in the way.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way.
Listen, my child, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right way.
Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way.
My child, listen and be wise: Keep your heart on the right course.
Listen, my son, and be wise. Lead your heart in the way.
Hear, my child, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way.
Hear, thou, my son, and be wise, and lead forward, in duty, thy heart.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.
Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And make happy in the way thy heart,
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.
Contextual Overview
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
By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."
that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in your presence for a burial site."
Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth; even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,
but when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place." And he said, "I will do as you have said."
for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field for a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.
Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here."
"For I know that You will bring me to death And to the house of meeting for all living.
If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, "Better the miscarriage than he,
Furthermore, men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags himself along, and the caperberry is ineffective. For man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street.
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return 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.
