complete verse (Proverbs 4:23)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 4:23:

  • Kupsabiny: “Keep/guard your thoughts, because (they) prepare/form life for you.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Care well for your mind,
    Your life will go according to what you keep in your mind.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Guard carefully your (sing.) mind, for what you (sing.) are-thinking is also your (sing.) life.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “See that you (sing.) more thoroughly-care-for your (sing.) thoughts/mind than even anything that is valuable to you (sing.), for that is the source of your (sing.) life.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Proverbs 4:23

Verses 23-27 close chapter 4 and this subdivision. The teacher uses as images various body parts from the heart to the head and finally to the feet.

“Keep your heart with all vigilance”: “Keep your heart” means to guard your thoughts; see Good News Translation. In some languages this is expressed as “Watch your mind,” “Keep a hand on your head,” or “Take care of your thoughts.” According to Brown, Driver, and Briggs, “with all vigilance” is literally “above all guarding,” that is, “more than anything else you may guard.” New Jerusalem Bible translates “More than all else, keep watch over your heart,” and New Jewish Publication Society Version has “More than all that you guard, guard your mind.” We may also say, for example, “The most important thing you can do is be careful what you think” or “The most important . . . is to think good thoughts.”

“For from it flow the springs of life”: The thought expressed here is that what people think, what is in their minds, determines how they will act. See Matt 15.19. “From it” means “from the heart [mind].” The word rendered “flow the springs” usually refers to the extremity or border of a geographical territory, but in association with “life” it seems to have the sense of a source or place of origin. The thought is that a person’s life is somehow determined by the thoughts stored in the heart or mind: “Everything you do comes out of your heart.” Contemporary English Version says “Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life.” Good News Translation translates this verse into very direct language and may serve as a model for translation.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 4:23

4:23

This verse consists of a command followed by a reason for obeying that command.

23a Guard your heart with all diligence,

23b for from it flow springs of life.

4:23a

Guard your heart with all diligence: This clause is an idiom. It means “Guard your heart more than anything else” or “Guard your heart with all vigilance.” English versions translate this idiom in several ways. For example:

Guard your heart more than anything you treasure (Revised English Bible)
-or-
Carefully guard your thoughts (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Be careful how you think (Good News Translation)

Guard your heart: This command implies “protect or keep your mind ⌊from evil⌋ .” A person who protects his mind restrains himself from thinking or expressing wrong thoughts. For the word heart, see the note on 4:4a.

4:23b

from it flow springs of life: In Hebrew, the term the Berean Standard Bible translates as springs is literally “the outgoings.” It means that the mind is a source of life, possibly in the sense that a person’s mind determines the course of his life. Other ways to translate this idea are:

your life is shaped by your thoughts (Good News Translation)
-or-
your thoughts run your life (New Century Version)
-or-
your heart…affects everything you do (New Living Translation (1996))

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.