What Does Proverbs 5:21 Mean?
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he levels all his paths.
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
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.THE KEY
Every path you trace is more than seen: it is weighed in the LORD’s sight.
THE MEANING
Your way lies open before the LORD; each track and turn is seen and weighed. His attention reaches the whole course of your movement, including steps that seem small or hidden.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a hidden direction is therefore an unmeasured one dissolves here.
THE ROOT
מְפַלֵּס
mephallēs
GROWS FROM
פלס
To weigh, balance, or make level.
“levels” in this verse is mephallēs. The Hebrew verb carries the image of weighing and leveling a path, giving “pondereth” the feel of a course being assessed step by step. The verse presents the LORD’s attention as reaching the whole track, not just noticing that it exists.
ALSO GROWS
pallēs: A form of the same verb, used for considering or leveling a path.
פַּלֵּס
In Proverbs 4:26, the same root appears in “Ponder the path of thy feet,” linking careful attention to a path with the weighing described here.
yepallēs: A form of this root meaning to weigh or make a path level.
יְפַלֵּס
Isaiah 26:7 uses this root for weighing the path of the just, showing the path itself as something brought into measure.
דַּרְכֵי
darkhē
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread; by extension, a trodden course or way.
The word for “ways” grows from the language of treading: a way is the course made by steps. That makes the verse’s image concrete, what is before the LORD’s eyes is the path taking shape through your movement.
ALSO GROWS
derek: A course or path, also used for a way of proceeding.
דֶּרֶךְ
It shows that the verse’s “ways” can name both a traveled route and the direction a life takes.
dārakh: To step or tread upon.
דָּרַךְ
This root verb reveals the movement beneath “way”: a course is formed by the steps that tread it.
THE PATTERN
The path remains fully visible to God, whose sight reaches the whole course and its hidden turns.
For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he sees all his steps.The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the harm and the good.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
Level the track of your feet, and let all your ways stand firm.The verb translated “Ponder” shares the root פלס (p-l-s, “weigh or make level”) with “pondereth” in Proverbs 5:21. The path you weigh in one verse is already weighed in the LORD’s sight in the other.
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