Proverbs 3:5 to 6 · Passage · Faith
Trust in the LORD with All Your Heart
Proverbs 3:5 to 6 asks a son to rest his whole weight on the LORD instead of on his own understanding.
The father who gives this command blesses, a few verses later, the man who acquires understanding.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
- The passage
- Proverbs 3:5 to 6
- Book
- Proverbs
- When
- the reign of Solomon (probable)
- Hold in memory
- Proverbs 3:5 to 6, Jeremiah 17:7 to 8
Summary
These two verses are a father's command to his son within the instruction of Proverbs 3:1 to 12. It asks for trust in the LORD with the whole heart and forbids leaning on one's own understanding. It asks that the LORD be acknowledged in all one's ways and promises that He will make the son's paths straight. The Hebrew verb for trust, batach, is the verb of the psalms of trust and of Jeremiah's tree planted by the waters.
- To acknowledge the LORD in all one's ways is to know Him in every part of life, beyond a nod of agreement.
- The promise that He will make the paths straight is read as making them level and as directing the traveller to the right end.
- Jeremiah 17:5 to 8 sets the man who trusts in mankind beside the man who trusts in the LORD, a shrub in the desert beside a tree by the waters.
Proverbs 3:5 to 6 in the Father's Instruction
Verses 5 and 6 are the third of six pairs in Proverbs 3:1 to 12, each a command joined to its result.
Trust in God stands at the heart of faith, and these two verses describe that trust as a reliance of the whole heart that reaches every road a person walks.
The question these verses raise is what each of their four clauses asks and what the promise at their end means. The study gives the Hebrew verb of each clause, reads the verses inside the father's instruction and beside the psalms and prophets of trust, and sets out the two readings of the promise.
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for they will add length to your days, years and peace to your life.Because the words My son open the chapter and return at verse 11, everything between them is a father's teaching.
The results run from length of days and peace in verse 2 and favor and high regard in verse 4 to a straight path in verse 6 and barns filled with plenty in verse 10. The sixth pair gives a reason in place of a reward, for the LORD disciplines the one He loves (verse 12).
So that your trust may be in the LORD, I instruct you today—yes, you.Later in the book the teacher gives the purpose of all his instruction, which is that the reader's trust may rest in the LORD.
Four Clauses of Proverbs 3:5 to 6
The command, the warning, the call and the promise each rest on one word of the Hebrew text.
Three commands about the heart, the mind and the whole of life lead to one promise from the LORD.
1Trust in the LORD with all your heart
- The Hebrew verb
- batach, a command, 120 uses
- The gloss
- to trust, be confident or sure
2lean not on your own understanding
- The Hebrew verb
- sha'an, 22 uses
- The gloss
- to support one's self
3in all your ways acknowledge Him
- The Hebrew verb
- yada, 945 uses
- The gloss
- to know, properly to ascertain by seeing
4He will make your paths straight
- The Hebrew verb
- yashar, 25 uses
- The gloss
- to be straight or even
A chain of four clauses, each with its Hebrew verb, the verb's number of uses in the Old Testament and its gloss.
In the Hebrew the second clause is a prohibition with the particle al, and the interlinear gloss of its verb reads you depend.
Franz Delitzsch, in his commentary on Proverbs, writes that the word for acknowledge means "not a mere theoretic acknowledgment". He calls it "earnest penetrating cognizance, engaging the whole man".
From Trust to Healing in Proverbs 3:5 to 8
The fear of the LORD in verse 7 stands where trust stands in verse 5, and verse 8 adds healing as a second result.
Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil. This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.Verse 7 turns the warning against leaning on one's own understanding into a warning against being wise in one's own eyes.
He who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.The same book names the opposite of this trust, a trust placed in oneself, and calls it folly.
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who acquires understanding,Since this verse prizes understanding, the fault the father names is leaning on one's own understanding in place of the LORD.
The Psalms and Prophets of Trust
Four psalms and Isaiah 26 use the same Hebrew verb for trust in fear, in danger and in peace, and Jeremiah 17 sets it beside its opposite.
Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it.The psalm joins trust to doing good and to committing one's way to the LORD.
In Psalm 37:5 the word for commit is gol, and an interlinear gloss of it reads roll. The picture is of a load rolled onto the LORD.
When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?The psalmist trusts at the moment he is afraid, so trust here is a choice made inside fear.
Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. SelahThis psalm calls a whole people to trust at all times and joins trust to honest prayer.
Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion. It cannot be moved; it abides forever.This psalm shows what trust gives the one who trusts, a steadiness that danger cannot move.
You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, because GOD the LORD is the Rock eternal.Isaiah ties the peace of a steady mind to trust, and he names the LORD as the reason the trust is safe.
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD. He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.This man rests on human strength, and his heart has turned away, the reverse of the whole heart the father asks for.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.Set beside the shrub of verse 6, this picture shows that hardship comes to the one who relies on the LORD as well, and he is kept through it.
Psalm 1:3 gives the picture of Jeremiah 17:8 to the one whose delight is in God's law, so Jeremiah sets trust where the psalm sets delight in that law.
Psalm 62:8, Psalm 125:1, Isaiah 26:3 to 4, Jeremiah 17:5 to 6, Jeremiah 17:7 to 8
Teachers on Proverbs 3:5 to 6
John Wesley, Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke, commentators of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, read the verses as a call to rely on God.
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), writes on verse 6 that a believer must own God's rule over all his affairs. In Henry's words, "we must solemnly own it, and address ourselves to him accordingly".
1703 to 1791 · John Wesley
John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), glosses the first command as "Wholly rely upon God's promises and providences". On lean not he writes, "Under this one kind of carnal confidence, he understands all other confidence in bodily strength, wealth, or friends".
1762 to 1832 · Adam Clarke
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, turns in all your ways into a rule for every task: "Begin, continue, and end every work, purpose, and device, with God".
He Will Make Your Paths Straight
Two readings of the promise rest on two senses of one Hebrew verb, and each has its holders and an objection.
The verb of the promise is yashar in its intensive form, and an interlinear gloss of it reads he will make straight. The King James Version renders the clause "he shall direct thy paths", and the Berean text renders it "He will make your paths straight".
Made level, with the hindrances taken awayFranz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament
Franz Delitzsch explains that God rewards those who regard Him "by making plain their path before them, i.e., by leading them directly to the right end, removing all hindrances out of their way". Albert Barnes writes that "God will make the 'path' straight and even".
The same verb stands in Isaiah 45:2, where the Berean text reads "level the mountains", and in Isaiah 40:3, "make a straight highway for our God".
The objection: elsewhere in Proverbs the verb with a path describes an upright life. Proverbs 11:5 says that "The righteousness of the blameless directs their path", and Proverbs 15:21 says that "a man of understanding walks a straight path".
Directed to the right endJohn Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)
John Gill writes that the Lord "directs them aright in things temporal and spiritual", and he joins the verse to Jeremiah 10:23, "no one who walks directs his own steps". Matthew Henry reads the promise as direction, by which the way will be "safe and good and the issue happy at last".
The objection: the Hebrew verb means to make straight or even, and the sense of guidance comes from the English word direct.
The two readings meet in Delitzsch's own sentence, where God leads the traveller to the right end and also removes the hindrances.
My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD, and do not loathe His rebuke; for the LORD disciplines the one He loves, as does a father the son in whom he delights.The father ends this instruction with the LORD's discipline, so the straight path of Proverbs 3:6 can still lead through correction.
Trust with the Whole Heart
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.The words with all your heart stand in the great command to love the LORD, and the father of Proverbs 3 asks the same whole heart for trust.
A reader keeps this command by bringing to the LORD each choice he would otherwise settle by his own understanding alone.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The King James Version, Proverbs 3:5 to 6.
- STEP Bible, Translators Amalgamated Hebrew Old Testament (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0), with Strong's numbers, morphology and interlinear glosses, at Proverbs 3:5 to 6, Psalm 37:5, Proverbs 11:5, Proverbs 15:21, Isaiah 40:3 and Isaiah 45:2.
- STEP Bible TBESH, entries h982, h8172, h3045 and h3474.
- C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, the Proverbs of Solomon (by Delitzsch), on Proverbs 3:5 to 8, in the English translation served by biblehub.com.
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, on Proverbs 3:6.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Proverbs 3:6.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), on Proverbs 3:5.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Proverbs 3:6.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on Proverbs 3:6.
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