Proverbs 3 explained

"In all your ways acknowledge him" (3:6) uses the Hebrew verb for know. And six verses after "Happy is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gets understanding" (3:13), the chapter says the LORD founded the earth and established the heavens by those same two, wisdom and understanding (3:19).

The chapter speaks to "My son" three times (3:1, 3:11, 3:21), as the book does from its first talk: "My son, listen to your father’s instruction" (1:8). It opens, "My son, don’t forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments" (3:1). Each command in 3:1-10 comes with what follows from it: "for they will add to you length of days, years of life, and peace" (3:2); "So you will find favor, and good understanding in the sight of God and man" (3:4); "and he will make your paths straight" (3:6); "It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones" (3:8); "so your barns will be filled with plenty" (3:10). The pattern comes back after the third "My son": keep sound wisdom and discretion, "so they will be life to your soul, and grace for your neck" (3:22). These are sayings, given to a son. These notes quote each result as it stands, and don't make any of them more than its words say (see the honest questions).

"So you will find favor" (3:4), "grace for your neck" (3:22), and "he gives grace to the humble" (3:34) are one Hebrew word, chen (tap grace). The WEB gives it as favor once and grace twice.

Proverbs 3:4 · Proverbs 3:22 · Proverbs 3:34

Proverbs 3:12→leads toRevelation 3:19

Proverbs 3:12 gives the reason for the LORD's correction: "for whom the LORD loves, he corrects, even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights" (Proverbs 3:12). The New Testament uses these words in Hebrews, which gives words close to them as "the exhortation which reasons with you as with children" (Hebrews 12:5): "for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Hebrews 12:6). In Revelation, the one who says, "I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever" (Revelation 1:18), speaks to the assembly in Laodicea and says, "As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent" (Revelation 3:19). Revelation doesn't cite Proverbs, and no link between the Hebrew and Greek words is claimed, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear Jesus saying of his own love what Proverbs 3:12 says of the LORD's: the one he loves, he corrects. Others read Revelation 3:19 on its own terms, as words to one assembly, which the speaker calls "lukewarm" (Revelation 3:16), with its own call to repent. Neither verse says that every hardship or illness is correction.

בָּטַחbatachsay ba-TAKH

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "trust", and "be confident". Strong's: "figuratively, to trust, be confident or sure". "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding" (3:5). Proverbs has the verb ten times in Hebrew, and this is the first. Later the book speaks of two kinds of trust: "One who trusts in himself is a fool" (28:26), and "whoever puts his trust in the LORD is kept safe" (29:25). It is the verb 2 Kings uses of Hezekiah: "He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel" (2 Kings 18:5).

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding" (3:5). Where do you find it hardest right now not to lean on your own understanding?