What Does Proverbs 16:3 Mean?
Roll your works upon the LORD, and your plans stand firm.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.THE KEY
The Hebrew image is not just dedication: your work is rolled toward the LORD, and the plans within you find footing.
THE MEANING
Your work is not separate from the way your plans take shape: when it is rolled toward the LORD, the designs within you find firmness. The verse speaks of an inward settling alongside the outward act of entrusting; the work remains real while its whole outcome is no longer yours to control.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your plans can be secure only if you control every step and outcome yourself.
THE ROOT
גֹּל
gōl
GROWS FROM
גלל
galal
To roll, roll away, or roll onto.
The command gōl is the verb “roll”: it pictures entrusting as moving your work’s weight toward the LORD. Related forms such as galgal, “wheel,” and Gilgal, “rolling,” keep that movement visible; the same root can describe what is released, as when Joshua says, “I have rolled away” the reproach.
ALSO GROWS
galal: To roll, roll away, or roll onto.
גָּלַל
This verb preserves the physical image beneath “commit”: the work is moved toward the LORD as something carried by its weight.
galgal: Wheel; a rolling wheel.
גַּלְגַּל
A wheel moves by rolling, keeping motion and carried movement inside the root’s image.
Gilgal: “Rolling”; a place name associated with rolling.
גִּלְגָּל
In Joshua 5:9, the LORD says, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt”; the place name Gilgal echoes the same root of rolling away.
מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ
machshevoteikha
GROWS FROM
חשב
chashav
To think, reckon, devise, or plan.
The word translated “thoughts” means plans or designs formed from the root chashav, which also means to devise and reckon. This root describes the skillful design behind crafted work, joining what your hands do with the design your mind forms.
ALSO GROWS
chashav: To think, reckon, devise, or plan.
חָשַׁב
The root holds practical calculation and intention together, so these “thoughts” are shaped designs rather than passing ideas.
machashevet: A design or devised work.
מַחֲשֶׁבֶת
The same word family describes skillful design in Exodus 31:4, linking the plans within you to work taking form.
וְיִכֹּנוּ
veyikkonu
GROWS FROM
כון
kun
To be firm, set in place, or prepared.
“stand firm” in this verse is veyikkonu. The verb here pictures the plans becoming firm or prepared, as though they find stable footing. Its root points to a settled place, not simply to every idea succeeding exactly as imagined.
ALSO GROWS
hekin: To prepare, make ready, or set in place.
הֵכִין
This related form shows that firmness can be a process of becoming ready, giving the verse’s “established” a sense of plans taking shape.
makhon: A fixed place, base, or dwelling.
מָכוֹן
The related noun carries the sense of a settled foundation, echoing plans that find a stable place.
THE PATTERN
When a way or burden is entrusted to the LORD, direction and steadiness emerge beyond self-command.
Roll your way upon the LORD, and lean your weight on him, and he will do it.A person's heart plans his way, but the LORD sets his steps firm.throwing all your divided care upon him, for you matter to him.THE THREAD
Roll your way upon the LORD, and lean your weight on him, and he will do it.“Commit” in both verses comes from גלל (galal), meaning “roll.” Proverbs speaks of rolling your works toward the LORD as your plans find firmness; Psalm 37 extends the same image to your whole way.
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