Proverbs 16:3
in Proverbs 16Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be achieved.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Commit thy works unto Jehovah, And thy purposes shall be established.
KJV
Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.
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This verse in Proverbs 16
Commentary
6 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Commit - literally, as in the margin, as a man transfers a burden from his own back to one stronger and better able to bear it. Compare the margin reference. Thy thoughts - i. e., The plans or counsels out of which the works spring.
This site's exposition
Commit your works to the LORD
on Proverbs 16:3-4
Verse 4 is a hard line, for “The LORD has made everything for His purpose,” “even the wicked”. Some read God's purpose reaching into judgment, others a wicked man kept for a day of reckoning. Delitzsch reads the Hebrew as bearing the first sense without making God author of evil.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
We are commanded to show him our ways and make our ways to him, which are made straight, not by our own efforts but by his help and mercy. Whence it is written, "Make straight your way in my sight" (or as other copies have it, "make straight my way in your sight"), so that what is straight to him may also appear straight to me. Solomon also says, "Lay open your works to the Lord, and your thoughts shall be directed."
The Medieval Church1 voice
Commit your works to the Lord, etc. Indeed, we reveal our works to the Lord when we remember Him in all we do, knowing that nothing is hidden from Him, and we seek His help in all things. And when we do this devoutly, it …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Commit thy works unto the Lord,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Commit thy works unto the Lord - See that what thou doest is commanded; and then begin, continue, and end all in his name. And thy thoughts shall be established - these schemes or arrangements, though formed in the heart, are agreeable to the Divine will, and therefore shall be established. His thoughts - his meditations - are right; and he begins and ends his work in the Lord; and therefore all issues well.
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| גֹּ֣ל | gol | roll | H1556 → | |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| יְהוָ֣ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| מַעֲשֶׂ֑יךָ | maaseikha | works your | H4639 → | 236 times |
| וְ֝יִכֹּ֗נוּ | veyikonu | so they may be established | H3559 → | 217 times |
| מַחְשְׁבֹתֶֽיךָ׃ | machshevoteikha | plans your | H4284 → | 56 times |
גֹּ֣לroll
golH1556 →
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
יְהוָ֣הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
מַעֲשֶׂ֑יךָworks your
maaseikhaH4639 →236 times
וְ֝יִכֹּ֗נוּso they may be established
veyikonuH3559 →217 times
מַחְשְׁבֹתֶֽיךָ׃plans your
machshevoteikhaH4284 →56 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
Philippians 4:6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 5:7
Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 3:5–6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
- Matthew 6:25–33
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more…
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17–18
Pray without ceasing.
- 1 Peter 5:7
Through
1 Peter 5:7Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
it leads to
- Psalms 55:22
Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Philippians 4:6
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 37:5
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 55:22
Through
Proverbs 3:6in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
it leads to
- Psalms 32:8
I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.
- Psalms 32:8
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies11
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Jerome, Against the Pelagians 3.8; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).