What Does Proverbs 4:25 Mean in the King James?
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
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
Your gaze is already a kind of path-making: what you hold before your eyes gives your way its line.
THE MEANING
Your eyes turn toward what is ahead, and your gaze settles into a straight line before you. The verse places direction first in attention: the path is already taking shape in what remains before your sight.
THE ROOT
יַיְשִׁרוּ
yayshiru
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
To be straight or level, and to make straight.
The verb translated “look straight” carries the sense of making straight. The same root can describe a path being directed, so the verse links the line of sight with the line of travel.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, level, or upright.
יָשָׁר
This root gives “straight” a sense of alignment, as well as direction.
yeyasher: Makes straight; directs.
יְיַשֵּׁר
In Proverbs 3:6, this same root describes the LORD directing the paths, linking straight sight with a straightened way.
mishor: Level ground or a plain.
מִישׁוֹר
The root also describes even terrain: a way made level and passable.
יַבִּיטוּ
yabbitu
GROWS FROM
נבט
n-b-ṭ
To look attentively or regard.
“look” in this verse is yabbitu. This root describes directed attention, not merely the eyes’ ability to see. Beside the straightening verb, it makes the gaze itself part of the verse’s movement toward a clear direction.
ALSO GROWS
habbet: Look; direct your gaze.
הַבֵּט
Genesis 15:5 uses this form when the reader is told to look toward the heavens, making the direction of attention explicit.
hibbitu: They looked toward; they regarded.
הִבִּיטוּ
Psalm 34:5 uses this root for people looking toward the LORD, showing the gaze as directed regard.
THE PATTERN
What is held steadily before the eyes gives the forward path its line.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.THE THREAD
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.Both verses use ישר (y-sh-r), meaning “be straight” or “make straight”: here the gaze is straightened; there the paths are directed. The path’s direction is visible first in the line of sight.
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