Proverbs 16: A Man's Heart Deviseth His Way

"The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD" (16:1). "Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established" (16:3). "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (16:9).

"A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment. A just weight and balance are the LORD's: all the weights of the bag are his work" (16:10–11).

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (16:18). "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness" (16:31).

"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD" (16:32–33).

Casting lots

Israel decided some matters by lot: the land divided among tribes (Joshua 18:6–10), Saul chosen king (1 Samuel 10:20–21), Jonah identified (Jonah 1:7), Matthias chosen (Acts 1:26). The high priest's Urim and Thummim may have worked similarly. Inscribed lots and dice are known from the ancient Near East; the Assyrian official Yahali's inscribed clay die (9th century BC) was a lot for choosing the year's eponym. 16:33 says that even what looks like chance is under God's governance. It is not an endorsement of gambling as divine guidance.

The king in Proverbs

16:10–15 portrays the king as he should be: giving just verdicts (qesem, "oracle," used positively only here), hating wickedness, valuing honest speech, his anger deadly and his favour "as a cloud of the latter rain" (the spring rain that ripens the grain). It is an ideal, not a description of every king; Kings and the prophets record many who fell short. Royal sayings fit a court setting and are one reason scholars connect parts of Proverbs to scribes in the Judean monarchy.

16:9 and human freedom

"A man's heart deviseth (yechashev) his way: but the LORD directeth (yakhin) his steps." The saying holds two things together: people truly plan, and God's purposes stand (19:21; 20:24). It is not fatalism, since Proverbs constantly urges careful planning (15:22; 20:18; 24:6), nor a promise that every plan will succeed. Jeremiah 10:23 and James 4:13–15 voice the same humility. The Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope has a close thought: "One thing are the words men say, another is what the god does" (19.16, Lichtheim). See the passage page.

The middle of the book

The Masoretic notes count the verses of Proverbs (915) and mark 16:17 as the middle verse (reported from the Masoretic note; the site's library has 915 verses in the Hebrew, D check). Such counts were part of how scribes guarded the text against loss or addition.

The library's Greek

Giguet's Greek chapter 16 does not begin with Hebrew 16:1: its 16:2–4 correspond to Hebrew 15:30–33, and its 16:5 joins Hebrew 16:5 to extra lines ("to do justice is the beginning of the good way, more pleasing to God than sacrifice"). Hebrew 16:1 and 16:3 have no equivalent at their expected places. As with chapters 11 and 13, Greek readings in this chapter are found by content (D check; C check against Rahlfs).