Proverbs 4 Study Notes
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4:22 On life, see note at 3:22.
4:23 Above all else is literally “more than all guarding.” To guard something is to make sure that it does not get away and that it is safe from attack. In Hebrew the heart is the location of knowledge and also the preconscious source of decisions (27:19; Mt 15:18). Your heart is who you are, the “true you” that directs all your thoughts and emotions. You can educate your heart (Pr 24:32)—consciously form and modify a worldview—after which decisions and actions flow from it (16:9,23; Lk 6:45; Rm 10:10; 2Co 9:7). This education can be worldly, carried out by yourself, or godly, carried out by the Holy Spirit (Pr 2:6; Jr 24:7; Ezk 36:26-27; Ac 16:14; Rm 2:29). The inclination of your heart directs your mortal life and determines whether you enter eternal life (3:22).
4:24 While as a rule the heart determines what comes out of the mouth (see v. 23), false speech can eventually poison the heart.
4:25-27 Undivided attention to the right path (cp. 17:24; 27:20) and a determination not to even sample evil (cp. vv. 13-15; 1:15) assure that your ways will be established. The passive voice implies that it is God who does it. “Established” is fixed and firm, secure, not subject to change or to destruction (12:3; 16:3; 24:3; 25:5). Right or . . . left expresses the whole range of evil paths. That is not to say that a middle road, a compromise, is the good way, but that it is important not to leave the only good way.