World English Bible
- My son, don’t forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments,
- for they will add to you length of days, years of life, and peace.
- Don’t let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
- So you will find favor, and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
- Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.
- In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
- Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
- It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.
- Honor the LORD with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase;
- so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
- My son, don’t despise the LORD’s discipline, neither be weary of his correction;
- for whom the LORD loves, he corrects, even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.
- Happy is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gets understanding.
- For her good profit is better than getting silver, and her return is better than fine gold.
- She is more precious than rubies. None of the things you can desire are to be compared to her.
- Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.
- Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths are peace.
- She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Happy is everyone who retains her.
- By wisdom the LORD founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens.
- By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, and the skies drop down the dew.
- My son, let them not depart from your eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion,
- so they will be life to your soul, and grace for your neck.
- Then you shall walk in your way securely. Your foot won’t stumble.
- When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet.
- Don’t be afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it comes;
- for the LORD will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being taken.
- Don’t withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it.
- Don’t say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again; tomorrow I will give it to you,” when you have it by you.
- Don’t devise evil against your neighbor, since he dwells securely by you.
- Don’t strive with a man without cause, if he has done you no harm.
- Don’t envy the man of violence. Choose none of his ways.
- For the perverse is an abomination to the LORD, but his friendship is with the upright.
- The LORD’s curse is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the righteous.
- Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.
- The wise will inherit glory, but shame will be the promotion of fools.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.”
—Proverbs 3:5, World English Bible
Proverbs 3 does not merely offer principles for a successful life. It describes a life brought back into harmony with the order of creation.
The father tells his son to bind kindness and truth around his neck and write them upon his heart. In the ancient world, significant words could be inscribed on clay tablets, while seals and amulets were worn around the neck. But external symbols were not enough. God’s wisdom must pass from the tablet we carry to the person we become.
“Kindness and truth” translates hesed we’emet, a covenant pair often used of God himself: steadfast love joined to faithfulness. Wisdom is therefore more than sharp thinking. It is the character of God taking written form within a human life. John’s declaration that Christ came “full of grace and truth” echoes this great biblical theme (John 1:14).
To acknowledge God “in all your ways” is even deeper than consulting him before decisions. The Hebrew verb is yadaʿ—to know personally and relationally. We are not asked merely to recognize God at the crossroads, but to know him along the whole road. He does not promise that every road will be painless. He promises to make it straight: morally clear, freed from the crookedness created by divided loyalties.
The chapter suddenly moves from family instruction to the founding of the cosmos: “By wisdom the LORD founded the earth.” This is the chapter’s hidden center. Wisdom works because it is woven into reality. To live wisely is not to manipulate life through reliable techniques; it is to live in agreement with the grain of God’s world.
That is why wisdom becomes “a tree of life.” Humanity was driven from Eden’s tree, yet here its life-giving presence appears again—not seized, but received. The image reaches forward to Christ, the Wisdom of God, through whom all things were made and whose cross becomes our tree of life (1 Corinthians 1:24; Colossians 1:15–20).
Even divine discipline belongs to this restoration. God’s correction is not evidence that we have fallen from his care, but that we remain within it. Hebrews 12:5–11 quotes this passage to show that discipline is not judicial rejection; it is a Father reshaping beloved children.
The closing commands about neighbors are not an ethical appendix. They are the test of whether cosmic wisdom has reached our hands. In an agrarian society, delaying payment or aid until tomorrow might mean another household went hungry tonight. “When it is in the power of your hand” makes present ability a present obligation.
The upright receive God’s “friendship” (verse 32). The Hebrew word sod can mean intimate counsel—the trusted circle where secrets are shared. God does not merely direct the humble from a distance; he welcomes them into his confidence.
Wisdom begins in wonder, enters the heart, orders the path, and finally opens the hand.
Exodus 34:6; Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 12:5–11; James 4:6; Colossians 1:15–20.
Suggested hymn: “Be Thou My Vision.”
Father, write your faithful love deeper than my habits and fears. Deliver me from trusting my narrow sight. Through Christ, your living Wisdom, straighten my path, humble my heart, and open my hand to the neighbor whose need must not wait until tomorrow. Amen.