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Proverbs 16:9

"A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps"

The Hebrew sets human planning beside divine direction. The library's Greek makes it an exhortation: "Let the heart of man think just things, that God may direct his steps" (at the start of its chapter 16, because the Greek arranges this chapter differently). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

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✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The proverb as first composedCollections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Proverbs
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation

    Every witness, in order

    1. Collections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)

      The proverb as first composed

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Proverbs are two small Qumran fragments (4Q102, 4Q103, 1st century BC – 1st century AD, reported).

    2. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

      Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Cor hominis disponit viam suam, sed Domini est dirigere gressus ejus.

      Latin position: Proverbs 16:9. Jerome translated Proverbs from Hebrew (c. AD 398); the Clementine Vulgate sometimes also carries lines from the Greek.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      לֵ֣ב אָ֭דָם יְחַשֵּׁ֣ב דַּרְכּ֑וֹ וַֽ֝יהוָ֗ה יָכִ֥ין צַעֲדֽוֹ׃

      The heart of a man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his step

      Hebrew position: Proverbs 16:9.

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

    5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

      Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Proverbs

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Que le cœur de l’homme ait des pensées de justice, afin que Dieu le fasse cheminer dans la droite voie.

      Greek (digital file) position: Proverbs 16:1. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). In these chapters the Greek verse positions in the digital file shift; the matching line was found by content. No Göttingen critical edition of Greek Proverbs is published; a C check needs Rahlfs–Hanhart and specialist studies. The line stands at the start of the file's chapter 16.

    What changed, and why

    The Hebrew verbs are chashav ("plans, devises") and kun ("establishes, makes firm"): humans plan; God gives (or withholds) the firm step. The same thought is in 16:1; 19:21; 20:24 and Jeremiah 10:23. It does not discourage planning (15:22; 20:18).

    The Greek turns a statement into advice (plan justly, and God will guide you), shifting the emphasis from providence to ethics. This is a translator's interpretation; it is not evidence of a different Hebrew (C check).

    An Egyptian parallel: "One thing are the words men say, another is what the god does" (Amenemope 19.16, Lichtheim). The Mesopotamian proverb "Man proposes, god disposes" has many later echoes; the English proverb "Man proposes, God disposes" comes through Thomas à Kempis' Latin (homo proponit, sed Deus disponit), itself an echo of this verse.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe library's Greek renders 16:9 as an exhortation.
    • Strongly supportedAmenemope contains a close parallel. Reported from Lichtheim (C).
    • Conflicts with current evidenceProverbs 16:9 teaches fatalism.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Proverbs 16: A Man's Heart Deviseth His Way →Chapter 16 stands near the centre of the book and is full of God. Its opening sayings (vv. 1–9) set human planning beside divine direction: "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (v. 9). A royal cluster (vv. 10–15) describes the ideal king, just weights and the danger of royal anger. Then come some of the best-known lines in Proverbs: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (v. 18); "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty" (v. 32); "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD" (v. 33).