What Does Proverbs 2:2 Mean in the King James?
So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Wisdom becomes reachable through a turn: the ear leans toward it while the heart is set toward discernment.
THE MEANING
Wisdom meets you as your attention turns toward it. Your ear receives wisdom, while your heart is set toward discernment; understanding takes shape as an inward direction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that hearing wise words automatically makes you wise: the verse joins listening to a heart set toward discernment.
THE ROOT
תַּטֶּה
tatteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
To stretch out, extend, bend, or turn aside.
The English “incline” can sound like a mild attitude, but נטה also means to stretch out or extend. The ear is pictured reaching toward wisdom, so hearing begins as a bodily reorientation, not merely sound passing by.
ALSO GROWS
natah: To stretch out, extend, or incline.
נָטָה
This verb shares the root and makes the ear’s movement toward wisdom concrete.
netiyyah: An inclination, turning, or deviation.
נְטִיָּה
This related form shows that the root carries a change of direction, fitting the ear’s deliberate turn toward wisdom.
חָכְמָה
ḥokhmah
GROWS FROM
חכם
To be wise or act skillfully.
Wisdom shares its root with the word for a wise person and the verb for becoming wise. The verse points toward wisdom as something embodied and exercised, not only information a person hears.
ALSO GROWS
ḥākām: A wise or skillful person.
חָכָם
This branch connects wisdom to the person who embodies it.
ḥākam: To be wise or act skillfully.
חָכַם
This verb presents wisdom as a capacity expressed in action.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom takes root when attention turns toward instruction and the inner life is oriented to discernment.
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,THE THREAD
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.Proverbs 4:20 uses the same Hebrew root נטה for “incline”: the ear turns toward sayings just as this verse turns toward wisdom. Here that motion continues inward, as the heart is set toward discernment.
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