Proverbs 4:20-22

20 1My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
21 2Let them not escape from your sight; 3keep them within your heart.
22 For they are 4life to those who find them, and healing to all their[a] flesh.

Proverbs 4:20-22 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 4

  • 1. ver. 10
  • 2. Proverbs 3:21
  • 3. [Proverbs 2:1]
  • 4. ver. 13; Proverbs 8:35; Proverbs 21:21; Deuteronomy 32:47; [1 Timothy 4:8]

Footnotes 1

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.