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Monday, September 15th, 2025
the Week of Proper 19 / Ordinary 24
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Read the Bible

New Life Version

Proverbs 23:16

My heart will be full of joy when your lips speak what is right.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Children;   Young Men;   Thompson Chain Reference - Reins;   Social Duties;   Temperance;   Temperance-Intemperance;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Joy;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Heart;   Pardon;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Poetry;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Kidney;   Proverbs, Book of;   Reins;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Kidneys;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Reins;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Kidneys;   Reins;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My innermost being will celebratewhen your lips say what is right.
Hebrew Names Version
Yes, my heart will rejoice, When your lips speak what is right.
King James Version
Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
English Standard Version
My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right.
New American Standard Bible
And my innermost being will rejoice When your lips speak what is right.
New Century Version
I will be so pleased if you speak what is right.
Amplified Bible
Yes, my heart will rejoice When your lips speak right things.
World English Bible
Yes, my heart will rejoice, When your lips speak what is right.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And my reynes shall reioyce, when thy lips speake righteous things.
Legacy Standard Bible
And my inmost being will exultWhen your lips speak upright things.
Berean Standard Bible
My inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
Contemporary English Version
and if you are truthful, I will really be glad.
Complete Jewish Bible
my inmost being rejoices when your lips say what is right.
Darby Translation
and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.
Easy-to-Read Version
It makes me feel good inside when you say the right things.
George Lamsa Translation
Yea, my heart shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.
Good News Translation
I will be proud when I hear you speaking words of wisdom.
Lexham English Bible
And my insides will rejoice when your lips speak what is upright.
Literal Translation
And my reins shall rejoice when your lips speak right things.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
yee my reynes shalbe very glad, yf yi lyppes speake the thinge yt is right.
American Standard Version
Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things.
Bible in Basic English
And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Yea, my reins will rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
King James Version (1611)
Yea my reines shall reioyce, when thy lippes speake right things.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Yea my raynes shalbe very glad, if thy lippes speake the thing that is right.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and thy lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
English Revised Version
Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and my reynes schulen make ful out ioye, whanne thi lippis speken riytful thing.
Update Bible Version
Yes, my heart will rejoice, When your lips speak right things.
Webster's Bible Translation
Yes, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
New English Translation
my soul will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
New King James Version
Yes, my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak right things.
New Living Translation
Everything in me will celebrate when you speak what is right.
New Revised Standard
My soul will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So shall my reins exult, when thy lips speak the things that are right.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.
Revised Standard Version
My soul will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
Young's Literal Translation
And my reins exult when thy lips speak uprightly.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
And my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak what is right.

Contextual Overview

12 Open your heart to teaching, and your ears to words of much learning. 13 Do not keep from punishing the child if he needs it. If you beat him with the stick, he will not die. 14 Beat him with the stick, and save his soul from hell. 15 My son, if your heart is wise, my own heart will be glad also. 16 My heart will be full of joy when your lips speak what is right.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thy: Proverbs 8:6, Ephesians 4:29, Ephesians 5:4, Colossians 4:4, James 3:2

Reciprocal: 1 Chronicles 29:9 - David Proverbs 10:1 - A wise Proverbs 15:20 - wise Proverbs 16:24 - Pleasant Proverbs 17:21 - hath Proverbs 23:24 - father Proverbs 27:11 - be wise

Cross-References

Genesis 23:15
"My lord, listen to me. The land is worth four hundred pieces of silver. What is that between me and you? So bury your wife."
Genesis 43:21
When we came to the place where we stayed the night, we opened our bags. And we found that the full weight of each man's money was at the top of the bag. So we have brought it again with us.
Exodus 30:13
Every one who is numbered will give one piece of silver, by the weight decided upon for the holy place. One piece of silver will be a gift to the Lord.
Job 28:15
Pure gold cannot be traded for it and it cannot be bought with silver.
Jeremiah 32:9
So I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel, the son of my father's brother. And I weighed out seventeen pieces of silver for him.
Ezekiel 45:12
The silver piece of money must be worth the same as twenty small silver pieces. And sixty silver pieces of money must be worth the same as the heavy silver weight.
Zechariah 11:12
I said to them, "If you think it is right, give me my pay. But if not, keep it." So they weighed out thirty pieces of silver as my pay.
Matthew 7:12
"Do for other people whatever you would like to have them do for you. This is what the Jewish Law and the early preachers said.
Romans 13:8
Do not owe anyone anything, but love each other. Whoever loves his neighbor has done what the Law says to do.
Philippians 4:8
Christian brothers, keep your minds thinking about whatever is true, whatever is respected, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever can be loved, and whatever is well thought of. If there is anything good and worth giving thanks for, think about these things.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Yea, my reins shall rejoice,.... Which is only another phrase expressive of the same thing, and confirming the greatness of joy on the above occasion; not only his heart rejoiced, which was affectionately concerned for his son, near which he lay, the desires of which were frequently drawn out for his good, but his reins also; the seat of the afflictions rejoiced at it; showing how vehement, sincere, and hearty the joy was;

when thy lips speak right things; as they will, when the heart is wise; things agreeably to right reason, to the Scriptures of truth, the oracles of God; to the law and to the testimony; to the Gospel of Christ, and the doctrines of it; and such things as are savoury, pleasant, and profitable, and minister grace to the hearers. The Targum is,

"when my lips speak right things;''

see Proverbs 8:6.

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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