Proverbs 21:3

These sayings belong to the long collection of Solomon’s proverbs (Proverbs 10:1–22:16), short sayings that each stand on their own. Here several of them gather around the heart, justice and the LORD’s judgment, themes that run through the rest of Proverbs 21.

The first proverb takes the highest human authority Israel knew. A king’s word was law, and his decisions shaped the lives of a whole nation. Yet his heart is “in the hand of the LORD”. The heart, lêb, is the whole inner person in Hebrew: mind, will, intentions, conscience and the place where decisions are made. In a king it is the very centre of his authority. The hand, yâd, pictures power and control, and with a preposition, “by the hand of”, the same word marks anyone through whom something is done. The LORD holds the source of the king’s decisions, and the king’s choices carry out God’s purposes whether he knows it or not.

“As the rivers of water” points to the irrigation channels of a farming land like Israel. A farmer opened and closed small channels with simple tools to send water where his fields needed it. The water flows by its own nature, and the farmer decides where it goes. In the same way the LORD “turneth it whithersoever he will”. The verb nâṭâh means to stretch out, and so to bend, incline or turn aside. “Whithersoever he will” uses châphêts, to like, be pleased with or desire, so God turns the king’s heart wherever he pleases.

Other proverbs say the same of every person. “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33). “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand” (Proverbs 19:21). The book of Daniel speaks of God’s dominion over every kingdom (Daniel 4:35), Isaiah says that he brings princes to nothing (Isaiah 40:23), and Paul writes that all authority comes from God (Romans 13:1).

For rulers this is humbling, because their power is given to them and answers to God. For believers it is a comfort when leaders are unjust or the times are in turmoil. God remains on his throne, and that frees us to pray for those in authority, since he can incline their hearts toward justice and the good of their people.

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes.” The way, derek, is a road worn by walking, and so a person’s whole course of life. Right, yâshâr, means straight, just and upright. Each of us looks at our own conduct and finds it straight. This is the self-justifying bent of a fallen heart, which the prophet calls “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). It usually works quietly. We explain our actions to ourselves in a kindly light until our faults, our mixed motives and the harm we do to others drop out of sight.

“But the LORD pondereth the hearts.” The verb tâkan means to balance or to measure out by weight, and so to estimate or test. God weighs the heart as goods are weighed on a scale, and his reading is exact. The heart here, as in verse 1, is the inner person with all its thoughts, motives and will. The LORD told Samuel, “for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). An earlier proverb says that the LORD weighs the spirits (Proverbs 16:2), another that a man’s steps are directed by the LORD (Proverbs 20:24), and a psalm calls him the righteous God who tries the hearts and reins (Psalm 7:9). Everything lies open before his eyes (Hebrews 4:13), and when the Lord comes he will bring hidden things to light (1 Corinthians 4:5).

Israel was always in danger of keeping the law outwardly while the heart stayed far off, and the prophets condemned lip service in place of heart worship (Isaiah 29:13). This proverb reaches the same place. It speaks of how we judge ourselves, and it leaves room for real good done by people. Its warning falls on the confidence that calls our own way right because it is ours.

So the verse is both a warning and a comfort. It warns against self-righteousness and trust in our own moral judgment. It comforts anyone who is misjudged by others, because God knows and weighs their real intentions. The prayer that answers it is the psalmist’s: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23–24).

Verse 3 names what pleases the LORD more than sacrifice: “to do justice and judgment”. “To do” is ʻâsâh, the broad word for doing or making. Justice, tsᵉdâqâh, is rightness: right character, right conduct, being right with God and acting rightly toward others. Judgment, mishpâṭ, is properly a verdict given in court, and so the doing of justice: fair decisions, equity in dealings and the protection of those who are easily overlooked. Tsᵉdâqâh leans toward character and mishpâṭ toward action, and together they cover a whole life of righteousness, at home and in public. Both reflect the LORD himself, Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant God of Israel, whose own character is just and right.

“More acceptable” translates bâchar, to choose or prefer. Sacrifice, zebach, is literally a slaughter, the animal offered at the altar, and it stands here for outward worship of every kind.

Verse 4 names pride as sin from the outside in. “An high look” is the outward sign. Rûwm means height, and figuratively haughtiness, the eyes of someone who looks down on others. “A proud heart” is its root. The word for proud, râchâb, means roomy or broad, a heart swollen with its own importance, and the heart is lêb, the same word as in verse 1. Elsewhere Proverbs says that “every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 16:5) and that “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Jesus told the Pharisees, who justified themselves before men, that God knows their hearts (Luke 16:15).

The verdict at the end, “is sin”, uses chaṭṭâʼâh, the ordinary word for sin, which also names the sin offering and in a few places purification.

Verse 5 follows two kinds of people from their thinking to their outcome. “Thoughts”, machăshâbâh, means a contrivance, intention or plan, the designs that guide what someone does. The diligent, chărûwts, are sharp, determined and eager, people who put focused and steady effort into their work. Their plans “tend only to plenteousness”, to gain and abundance. The hasty, from ʼûwts, to press or hurry, rush ahead without enough thought and are impatient for quick results, and they come “only to want”, machçôwr, lack and need.

Israel lived by farming, herding and crafts, and all of them reward patient planning. A rushed decision could cost a harvest or a flock. Proverbs says the same thing many times. “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich” (Proverbs 10:4). “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute” (Proverbs 12:24). The soul of the diligent is satisfied (Proverbs 13:4), plans fail for lack of counsel (Proverbs 15:22), and haste brings its own consequences (Proverbs 28:20). This same chapter praises the wise who store up and warns about the sluggard’s desire (Proverbs 21:20, 21:25), and the excellent wife of Proverbs 31 is a portrait of this careful industry. Wisdom in Israel was a practical skill for living well. Behind it stands God’s order for his world, in which those who reject wisdom eat the fruit of their own way (Proverbs 1:31).

Verse 6 looks at wealth gained by falsehood, and the fault it names lies in the means: “a lying tongue”. Sheqer means falsehood, a lie, a sham. Truthfulness held Israel’s life together, in trade, in the courts and among neighbours, and dishonest dealing was an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 11:1).

Such treasure is “a vanity tossed to and fro”. Hebel has the base sense of breath or vapour and is used for what is futile and worthless. It is the word that runs through Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 1). “Tossed to and fro” comes from nâdaph, to drive away or scatter. Riches gained by lies are empty and unstable, a vapour driven off before it can be held. “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing” (Proverbs 10:2), and “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase” (Proverbs 13:11).

“Of them that seek death” says where this road ends. Death, mâveth, can mean the end of bodily life, and in Proverbs it also means ruin and separation from God and his blessing. The liar seeks gain, and what he is really pursuing is his own destruction, for “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

“Robbery” in verse 7 is shôd, violence, ravage, destruction and oppression, the forceful plundering of other people. The proverb says this violence “shall destroy them”, turning back on those who commit it. The verb gârar means to drag off roughly, and it also describes a sweeping, whirling storm. The violence of the wicked carries them away like that storm.

The cause comes in the second line: “because they refuse to do judgment”. Mâʼên means to refuse, and what they refuse is mishpâṭ, the same word as “judgment” in verse 3. Verse 3 names what the LORD prefers above sacrifice, and here are people who refuse it. Justice was required of Israel’s judges and people alike (Deuteronomy 16:18–20).

Scripture describes this kind of ruin often. “The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands” (Psalm 9:15–16). The wicked man falls into the pit he dug (Psalm 7:15–16). “Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him” (Isaiah 3:10–11). God “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6–9), and “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). This chapter returns to the theme in Proverbs 21:12 and 21:18.

For those who suffer under oppression this is a hope. God’s justice will balance the scales, even when it comes slowly, and the oppressor’s own wickedness becomes his undoing.

Verse 8 sets two characters side by side. “The way of man” uses derek, the same word as in verse 2, for the course of a life, here the life of the man the second line sets against the pure. His way is “froward”, hăphakpak, a doubled form from haphak, to turn or overturn, which makes it very crooked and twisted out of the straight. It is also “strange”, vâzâr, a way that departs from what is right and leaves others uneasy about it. There is a way that looks right to a man and ends in death (Proverbs 14:12).

“But as for the pure, his work is right.” Zak means clear, clean and pure, free of deceit and hidden motives. The work of the pure, his deeds, are straight and honest, because what is inside comes out in what he does. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The upright walk securely (Proverbs 10:9), their integrity guides them (Proverbs 11:3), the LORD knows the way of the righteous (Psalm 1:6), and Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit (Matthew 7:17–20).

This brings the passage back to verse 2. Our ways are right in our own eyes, and the LORD who weighs the heart sees a pure heart show itself in right work.

Each of these sayings finds its fullest meaning in Jesus. He is the King whose heart was always one with the Father’s will: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). His cross is the clearest sight of God’s hand over rulers, and God has exalted him, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:9–11).

He is the one man whose way was truly right. He came to fulfil all righteousness (Matthew 3:15) and lived his whole life without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He also weighed hearts as only God can, knowing Nathanael’s true character before they met (John 1:47–48) and perceiving what the scribes were thinking (Mark 2:8).

He did justice and judgment, standing up for the lowly, healing the sick and exposing a religion of outward show (Matthew 23:1–36). He is also the sacrifice that verse 3 looks beyond: “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), whose one offering, made once for all, fulfilled what the animal sacrifices pointed to (Hebrews 10:10–14). In him perfect sacrifice and perfect righteousness meet, and those who belong to him offer their whole lives as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1).

Against the high look and proud heart of verse 4 stands the one who “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:6–7). Against the shortcuts of haste stands his patience in the wilderness, where he turned down every shortcut the devil offered (Matthew 4:1–11), and his steady road to the cross. Against the lying tongue stands the one who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), in whom all the treasures of wisdom are hid (Colossians 2:3), and who came to give abundant life (John 10:10).

The wicked of verse 7 are all of us apart from him, for “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Christ bore the judgment our sin deserved. God “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and through his righteousness those who trust him are justified (Romans 5:18). He overcame death itself (1 Corinthians 15:54–57), and God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him should have everlasting life (John 3:16). God promised a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26–27), and by his Spirit the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit (Romans 8:4). In Christ the pure heart and right work of verse 8 become ours.

These proverbs show us a God who holds every throne and sees every heart. The most powerful will on earth runs where he directs it, like water in a channel, and every ruler and every turn of events lies within his hand. The same LORD weighs what we cannot see in ourselves, and he cares about how we treat people more than about the outward forms of our religion. He calls pride sin, he lets lies and violence bring their own ruin, and he has made a world in which patient, honest work bears fruit. The warning and the comfort come from one truth. Since he weighs the heart, the prayer that fits these verses is “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23–24). And since the pure heart is his gift through Christ, the right work of verse 8 is something he gives as well as something he asks.