Proverbs 23:19

World English Bible

Listen, my son, and be wise, And keep your heart on the right path!

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].

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

¹⁹ Listen, my son, and be wise, And keep your heart on the right path! ²⁰ Don't be among ones drinking too much wine, Or those who gorge themselves on meat: ²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; And drowsiness clothes them in rags. ²² Listen to your father who gave you life, And don't despise your mother when she is old. ²³ Buy the truth, and don't sell it: Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding. ²⁴ The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him. ²⁵ Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice! ²⁶ My son, give me your heart; And let your eyes keep in my ways. ²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit; And a wayward wife is a narrow well. ²⁸ Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, And increases the unfaithful 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 will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Genesis 23:9
that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying-place."

Genesis 23:10
Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,

Genesis 47:30
but when I sleep with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place." He said, "I will do as you have said."

Genesis 50:13
for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried 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, before Mamre.

Genesis 50:25
Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here."

Job 30:23
For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.

Ecclesiastes 6:3
If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:

Ecclesiastes 12:5
Yes, they shall be afraid of heights, And terrors will be in the way; And the almond tree shall blossom, And the grasshopper shall be a burden, And desire shall fail; Because man goes to his everlasting home, And the mourners go about the streets:

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.