Proverbs 4:23-27

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for ¹from it flow ²the springs of life.

24 Put away from you ³crooked speech, and put ⁴devious talk far from you.

25 ⁵Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

26 ⁶Ponder^[a] the path of your feet; ⁷then all your ways will be sure.

27 ⁸Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

Proverbs 4:23-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 4

In this chapter Solomon advises to seek after wisdom, to avoid bad company, and to continue in the right paths of goodness and truth: he excites attention to what he had to say, from the relation he stood in to the persons addressed; from the nature of his instructions, which were good and profitable; and from his own example, in attending to those his parents gave him, Pr 4:1-4; He exhorts above all things to get wisdom, from the superior excellency of it, and from the preservation, promotion, and honour, to be had by it, Pr 4:5-9; and he further enforces big exhortations, from their being the means of a comfortable life, and of the prolongation of it, and of leading in a right way without straitness or stumbling, Pr 4:10-13. And then proceeds to caution against bad company, and going into a bad way of life; which is enforced from the mischief done by those that walk in it, and from the darkness of it, to which the path of the just is opposed, Pr 4:14-19. And the exhortation to attend to and observe his instructions, and keep them, is repeated, from the consideration of their being life and health to them, Pr 4:20-22; and that they might be preserved, and not departed from, direction's are given about ordering the heart, mouth, lips, eyes, and feet, Pr 4:23-27.

Cross References

• 1. [Matthew 12:35]
• 2. [Psalms 16:11]
• 3. Proverbs 6:12
• 4. Proverbs 2:15
• 5. [Hebrews 12:2]
• 6. Proverbs 5:6, 21; [Hebrews 12:13]
• 7. [Psalms 119:5]
• 8. Deuteronomy 5:32; Deuteronomy 28:14; Joshua 1:7; 1 Kings 15:5

Footnotes

• [a]. Or Make level