What Does Proverbs 3:21 Mean?
My son, do not let them bend away from your eyes. Guard solid wisdom and discretion.
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
My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion:THE KEY
Wisdom stays near through attention: what you keep in sight can keep shaping how you see.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you as a son, someone addressed in relationship. Sound wisdom and discretion are kept from slipping out of view, close enough to shape how you perceive and choose. What is guarded in attention remains available now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wisdom, once acquired, can be left unattended; the verse presents it as something that can slip from view.
THE ROOT
נְצֹר
nəṣōr
GROWS FROM
נצר
n-ṣ-r
Guard, watch, preserve.
“guard” in this verse is nəṣōr. The Hebrew word for “keep” carries the sense of guarding or watching over something. Wisdom and discretion are not merely possessed; they are kept in view through continuing attention.
ALSO GROWS
nāṣar: To guard, keep, or preserve.
נָצַר
This is the verb’s base form and makes the verse’s keeping an act of protection.
nōṣēr: One who keeps or guards; a keeper.
נֹצֵר
This related form presents guarding as an ongoing role, not a single act.
מְזִמָּה
məzimmāh
GROWS FROM
זמם
z-m-m
Devise, plan, or form an intention.
Discretion here carries the sense of deliberate thought and design, not only cautious restraint. Joined with sound wisdom, it is considered purpose kept in view; the root’s wider range also includes schemes, showing that planning can serve different ends.
ALSO GROWS
zāmam: To devise or plan.
זָמַם
This verb reveals the deliberate thought beneath the noun “discretion.”
zimmāh: A plan, device, or scheme.
זִמָּה
This related noun shows the same capacity for forming a design, which wisdom gives direction.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom is preserved through sustained attention, keeping the inner life and its direction from drifting.
Above every watch you keep, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life.And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.The lamp of the body is the eye. When your eye is single, your whole body also is full of light, but when your eye is evil, your body also is full of darkness.THE THREAD
Above every watch you keep, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life.Both verses use נצר (natsar), meaning to guard or preserve: one keeps wisdom and discretion before the eyes, and the other guards the heart. The shared root connects attention and inner life as parts of the same act of keeping.
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