World English Bible
- Listen, sons, to a father’s instruction. Pay attention and know understanding;
- for I give you sound learning. Don’t forsake my law.
- For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.
- He taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments, and live.
- Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don’t forget, and don’t deviate from the words of my mouth.
- Don’t forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you.
- Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.
- Esteem her, and she will exalt you. She will bring you to honor when you embrace her.
- She will give to your head a garland of grace. She will deliver a crown of splendor to you.”
- Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many.
- I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in straight paths.
- When you go, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble.
- Take firm hold of instruction. Don’t let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.
- Don’t enter into the path of the wicked. Don’t walk in the way of evil men.
- Avoid it, and don’t pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on.
- For they don’t sleep unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.
- For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
- But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day.
- The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.
- My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings.
- Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart.
- For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body.
- Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.
- Put away from yourself a perverse mouth. Put corrupt lips far from you.
- Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.
- Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established.
- Don’t turn to the right hand nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.
Proverbs 4 is framed as a father remembering that he was once a son. Wisdom moves through generations: received before it is taught, obeyed before it is explained. The father’s authority does not rest merely on age, but on having knelt beneath the same instruction he now gives.
The Hebrew description of him as yāḥîd—translated “only child”—can also mean uniquely precious or tenderly loved. Solomon was not literally his mother’s only child. The point is relational: wisdom is being passed down in an atmosphere of cherished belonging. Biblical instruction is not cold information handed to strangers; it is truth carried by love.
“Get wisdom” repeats the Hebrew verb qānâ, meaning to acquire or purchase. There is deliberate wordplay: whatever else you acquire, acquire understanding. Wisdom is God’s gift, yet it will cost us. It may cost cherished opinions, convenient habits, social approval, or the illusion that sincerity is enough.
But the chapter moves beyond acquisition: “Love her” and “embrace her.” Wisdom must become an affection, not merely an idea. Augustine described holiness as rightly ordered love. We become wise not only when we recognize what is true, but when our desires learn to welcome it.
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life” (World English Bible). In modern Western speech, the heart usually means emotion. In Hebrew thought, the lēb is the inner command center—the place of thought, desire, memory, and decision.
The verb translated “keep” carries the sense of guarding something entrusted to you. Yet the image is not of sealing the heart behind walls. It is of protecting a spring so that its water remains life-giving. In the dry land of ancient Israel, a spring could sustain an entire settlement; Jerusalem’s dependence on the Gihon Spring vividly illustrates this reality.
We therefore guard the heart not merely for self-protection, but because others will eventually drink from what flows out of us. Our speech, gaze, and steps reveal the condition of the hidden water.
Indeed, the closing verses form an anatomy of discipleship: ear, eyes, heart, mouth, gaze, and feet. Sin fragments the person; wisdom gathers the whole body into one faithful direction.
The righteous path is not described as instant noon, but as dawn growing brighter. God’s work in us is often gradual, yet it has a destination. Darkness, by contrast, removes even the ability to recognize what caused the fall. Sin is not only disobedience; it is progressive blindness.
The early church saw divine Wisdom reaching its fullness in Christ, “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24, New International Version). He does not merely point out the path. He becomes our Way and leads us toward the perfect day.
Suggested cross-references: Deuteronomy 6:4–9; Psalm
119:105; John 14:6; Ephesians 5:8–14
Suggested hymn: “Be Thou My Vision”
Lord Jesus, Wisdom of God, cleanse the hidden spring within me. Order my loves, steady my gaze, govern my speech, and direct my feet. Lead me faithfully through the half-light until I see You in the brightness of the perfect day. Amen.