Proverbs 22:18
in Proverbs 22for it is pleasing when you keep them within you and they are constantly on your lips.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee, If they be established together upon thy lips.
KJV
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips.
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This verse in Proverbs 22
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThe advantage designed us by them. The excellent things which God has written to us are not like the commands which the master gives his servant, which are all intended for the benefit of the master, but like those which the master gives his scholar, which are all intended for the benefit of the scholar.
This site's exposition
Incline your ear and hear the words
on Proverbs 22:17-21
"Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise" opens the book's third named section, after 1:1 and 10:1. Part of the section runs close to an Egyptian text, the Instruction of Amenemope. The traditional position holds these sayings as inspired wisdom in their own right.
This site's exposition
keep them within you
Keeping the words is pleasing to the one who keeps them. Matthew Henry compares them to a master's lessons to his scholar, given wholly for the scholar's good. Kept within you and constantly on your lips, the words of the wise serve the hearer.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Which will be beautiful to you when you keep it in your belly, etc. Often, the doctrine of wisdom seems harsh and undesirable to the foolish; but when one has perceived its power in the innermost heart, and learned to keep it with works, and …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee,.... Or, "in thy belly" (a).
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee - II. The pleasure and profit which may be derived from an attentive hearing. 1. They should be laid up in the heart-stored, treasured up within thee. 2. This will yield high satisfaction and happiness to the soul: “For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee.”
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
What is “pleasant” in the sight of God and man is the union of two things, belief passing into profession, profession resting on belief.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| נָ֭עִים | naim | [will be] pleasant | H5273 → | 13 times |
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| תִשְׁמְרֵ֣ם | tishmerem | you will keep them | H8104 → | 468 times |
| בְּבִטְנֶ֑ךָ | bevitnekha | in belly your | H990 → | 72 times |
| יִכֹּ֥נוּ | yikonu | they will be prepared | H3559 → | 217 times |
| יַ֝חְדָּ֗ו | yachdav | together | H3162 → | |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| שְׂפָתֶֽיךָ׃ | sefateikha | lips your | H8193 → | 176 times |
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
נָ֭עִים[will be] pleasant
naimH5273 →13 times
כִּֽי־that
ki-H3588 →4482 times
תִשְׁמְרֵ֣םyou will keep them
tishmeremH8104 →468 times
בְּבִטְנֶ֑ךָin belly your
bevitnekhaH990 →72 times
יִכֹּ֥נוּthey will be prepared
yikonuH3559 →217 times
יַ֝חְדָּ֗וtogether
yachdavH3162 →
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
שְׂפָתֶֽיךָ׃lips your
sefateikhaH8193 →176 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 15:16Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts.
it leads to
- Revelation 10:9–10
And I went to the angel and said, “Give me the small scroll.” “Take it and eat it,” he said. “It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as…
- Job 23:12
I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 3:1–3
“Son of man,” He said to me, “eat what you find here. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.”
- Psalms 119:101–103
I have kept my feet from every evil path, that I may keep Your word.
- Psalms 19:10
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
- Revelation 10:9–10
Through
John 7:38Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’”
it leads to
- John 4:14
But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”
- Isaiah 44:3
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.
- Isaiah 58:11
The LORD will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
- John 4:14
Where this verse is studied
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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.