Proverbs 7:3
in Proverbs 7Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Bind them upon thy fingers; Write them upon the tablet of thy heart.
KJV
Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
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This verse in Proverbs 7
Commentary
6 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
My son, keep my words
on Proverbs 7:1-5
The father's appeal opens exactly as chapters 2, 3 and 6 have opened it, commandments bound on the fingers and written on the table of the heart, and the bench reads the repetition as intentional rather than tired: a son does not learn this once. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister makes the safeguard relational, a kinship claimed on wisdom before the stranger's flattery ever arrives, so that the whole chapter's warning is framed before the chapter's story begins. The purpose is stated plainly at verse 5, that they may keep thee from the strange woman, and everything that follows is the case for why the guard is needed.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
These articles of our faith were not composed out of human opinion but are the principal points collected out of the whole of Scripture to complete a single doctrinal formulation of the faith. And in like manner as the mustard seed contains numbers of branches-to-be within its tiny grain, so also this creed embraces in a few phrases all the religious knowledge contained in the Old and New Testaments together. Look now, brethren, and "hold the traditions," which are now being imparted to you, and "write them on the table of your hearts."
The Medieval Church1 voice
Bind them on your fingers, etc. On your fingers, means in actions; on the tablets of your heart, in the breadth of thought. Indeed, another translation says: Inscribe it on the breadth of your heart.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
As that which we are fond of and are ever thinking of: Write them upon the table of thy heart, as the names of the friends we dearly love, we say, are written in our hearts. let the word of God dwell richly in us, and be written there where it will be always at hand to be read. Where sin was written ( Jer. xvii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Bind them upon thy fingers,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Bind them upon thy fingers - See on Pro 3:3 (note).
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| קָשְׁרֵ֥ם | kasherem | bind them | H7194 → | 44 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| אֶצְבְּעֹתֶ֑יךָ | ʾetzbeoteikha | fingers your | H676 → | |
| כָּ֝תְבֵ֗ם | katevem | write them | H3789 → | 224 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| ל֥וּחַ | luach | [the] tablet of | H3871 → | |
| לִבֶּֽךָ׃ | libekha | heart your | H3820 → | 595 times |
קָשְׁרֵ֥םbind them
kasheremH7194 →44 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
אֶצְבְּעֹתֶ֑יךָfingers your
ʾetzbeoteikhaH676 →
כָּ֝תְבֵ֗םwrite them
katevemH3789 →224 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
ל֥וּחַ[the] tablet of
luachH3871 →
לִבֶּֽךָ׃heart your
libekhaH3820 →595 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 31:33“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And…
it leads to
- Hebrews 10:16
“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- 2 Corinthians 3:3
It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hebrews 8:10
For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 11:19–20
And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,
- Jeremiah 24:7
I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their…
- Hebrews 10:16
Through
2 Corinthians 3:3It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 11:19
And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,
- Jeremiah 31:33
“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And…
- Ezekiel 11:19
Through
Proverbs 3:3Never let loving devotion or faithfulness leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 11:18–21
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
- Deuteronomy 11:18–21
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 5:12; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.