What Does Proverbs 23:19 Mean in the King James?
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
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
The verse makes wisdom more than hearing: it is the heart deliberately directed along the way.
THE MEANING
You hear, and wisdom takes form as your heart is directed in the way. The heart is the center of attention and intention, and the verse places it on a path. Listening and direction meet as one present reality.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing wise words is already the same as becoming wise; the verse joins hearing to the heart’s direction.
THE ROOT
וְאַשֵּׁר
ve’ashsher
GROWS FROM
אשר
To advance or go straight; in this form, to direct.
The word rendered “guide” belongs to a root family associated with advancing and with אַשְׁרֵי (ashrei, flourishing). The verse links the heart’s direction along a way with the same word family that names flourishing.
ALSO GROWS
ashurai: Steps or goings.
אֲשֻׁרַי
The same root appears in Psalm 17:5 for the speaker’s steps, connecting the heart’s direction here with movement along a path.
ashrei: Flourishing; a state of well-being.
אַשְׁרֵי
This related word shows how the root family connects a directed way with flourishing.
שְׁמַע
shemaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, and heed.
“Hear” in this verse is shemaʿ. Shema carries listening that includes response, so the opening command is more than sound passing the ear. Hearing is joined to the heart’s direction in the very next phrase.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: To hear attentively.
שָׁמַע
This is the root’s basic action: receiving what is heard.
shemuah: A message that has been heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The heard message enters through listening; the verse links that reception with wisdom and direction.
וֶחֱכָם
veḥekham
GROWS FROM
חכם
To be wise or skillful.
“be wise” in this verse is veḥekham. This root can describe wisdom as skilled knowing, not merely possession of facts. Here that skill appears as the heart’s placement on a way, joining discernment with direction.
ALSO GROWS
ḥakham: A wise or skillful person.
חָכָם
Wisdom names a quality of the person who hears and directs the heart.
ḥokhmah: Wisdom or skillful understanding.
חָכְמָה
The related noun frames wisdom as a capacity expressed in how the heart is oriented.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom takes shape when what is heard becomes the heart’s direction and the feet’s way.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:THE THREAD
Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.The word translated “my goings” is אֲשֻׁרַי (ashurai), from the same root family as “guide” in Proverbs 23:19. One verse speaks of the heart directed along the way; the other speaks of steps held steady in the paths.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us