Proverbs - 4:25



25 Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Proverbs 4:25.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.
Thine eyes do look straightforward, And thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Keep your eyes on what is in front of you, looking straight before you.
Let your eyes look straight ahead, and let your eyelids precede your steps.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Let thine eyes look right on,.... To the path of truth and holiness, without turning or looking to the right hand or left, as it is afterwards expressed; to the word of truth, as the rule to walk by; to Christ, the author and finisher of faith, from whom all grace, and the supplies of it, are to be had; and to the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God;
and thine eyelids look straight before thee; to the precepts of the word, to observe them; to the promises of it for encouragement; to the examples of the saints gone before, as motives to excite diligence, and to exercise patience, faith, and hope; to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life, and to the blessed hope laid up in heaven.

Let . . . before thee--that is, pursue a sincere and direct purpose, avoiding temptations.

Another rule commends gathering together (concentration) in opposition to dissipation. It is also even externally regarded worthy of consideration, as Ben-Sira, Proverbs 9:5, expresses it: μὴ περιβλέπου ἐν ῥύμαις πόλεως - purposeless, curious staring about operates upon the soul, always decentralizing and easily defiling it. But the rule does not exhaust itself in this meaning with reference to external self-discipline; it counsels also straight-forward, unswerving directness toward a fixed goal (and what else can this be in such a connection than that which wisdom places before man?), without the turning aside of the eye toward that which is profitless and forbidden, and in this inward sense it falls in with the demand for a single, not squinting eye, Matthew 6:22, where Bengel explains ἁπλοῦς by simplex et bonus, intentus in caelum, in Deum, unice. נכח (R. נך) means properly fixing, or holding fast with the look, and נגד (as the Arab. najad, to be clear, to be in sight, shows) the rising up which makes the object stand conspicuous before the eyes; both denote here that which lies straight before us, and presents itself to the eye looking straight out. The naming of the עפעפּים (from עפעף, to flutter, to move tremblingly), which belongs not to the seeing apparatus of the eye but to its protection, is introduced by the poetical parallelism; for the eyelids, including in this word the twinkling, in their movement follow the direction of the seeing eye. On the form יישׁרוּ (fut. Hiph. of ישׁר, to be straight), defective according to the Masora, with the Jod audible, cf. Hosea 7:12; 1-Chronicles 12:2, and under Genesis 8:17; the softened form הישׁיר does not occur, we find only הישׁיר or הושׁיר.

Right on - Direct all thine actions to a right end, and keep thy mind fixed upon that way which leads to it, and neither look or turn aside to the right - hand or the left.

*More commentary available at chapter level.


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