Proverbs 21:1
New International Version
In the LORD’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.

New Living Translation
The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the LORD; he guides it wherever he pleases.

English Standard Version
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.

Berean Standard Bible
The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.

King James Bible
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

New King James Version
The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.

New American Standard Bible
The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He pleases.

NASB 1995
The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes.

NASB 1977
The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes.

Legacy Standard Bible
The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of Yahweh; He turns it wherever He pleases.

Amplified Bible
The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it whichever way He wishes.

Christian Standard Bible
A king’s heart is like channeled water in the LORD’s hand: He directs it wherever he chooses.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
A king’s heart is like streams of water in the LORD’s hand: He directs it wherever He chooses.

American Standard Version
The king's heart is in the hand of Jehovah as the watercourses: He turneth it whithersoever he will.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
The heart of the King is like a stream of waters in the hands of God, and he turns it wherever he chooses.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
As a rush of water, so is the king's heart in God's hand: he turns it whithersoever he may desire to point out.

Contemporary English Version
The LORD controls rulers, just as he determines the course of rivers.

Douay-Rheims Bible
As the divisions of waters, so the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord: whithersoever he will he shall turn it.

English Revised Version
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD as the watercourses: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The king's heart is like streams of water. Both are under the LORD's control. He turns them in any direction he chooses.

Good News Translation
The LORD controls the mind of a king as easily as he directs the course of a stream.

International Standard Version
A king's heart is a water stream that the LORD controls; he directs it wherever he pleases.

JPS Tanakh 1917
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the watercourses: He turneth it whithersoever He will.

Literal Standard Version
The heart of a king [is] streams of waters in the hand of YHWH, | He inclines it wherever He pleases.

Majority Standard Bible
The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.

New American Bible
A king’s heart is channeled water in the hand of the LORD; God directs it where he pleases.

NET Bible
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD like channels of water; he turns it wherever he wants.

New Revised Standard Version
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.

New Heart English Bible
The king's heart is in the LORD's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.

Webster's Bible Translation
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

World English Bible
The king’s heart is in Yahweh’s hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.

Young's Literal Translation
Rivulets of waters is the heart of a king in the hand of Jehovah, Wherever He pleaseth He inclineth it.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The King's Heart
1The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases. 2All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart.…

Cross References
Ezra 6:22
For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.

Jeremiah 39:12
"Take him, look after him, and do not let any harm come to him; do for him whatever he says."


Treasury of Scripture

The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will.

as

Psalm 74:15
Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

Psalm 93:4
The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.

Psalm 114:3,5
The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back…

Jump to Previous
Brooks Channels Desires Direction Directs Hand Hands Heart Inclineth King's Pleases Pleaseth Pleasure Rivers Rivulets Stream Streams Turned Turneth Turns Water Watercourse Watercourses Waters Wherever Whithersoever Wishes
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Brooks Channels Desires Direction Directs Hand Hands Heart Inclineth King's Pleases Pleaseth Pleasure Rivers Rivulets Stream Streams Turned Turneth Turns Water Watercourse Watercourses Waters Wherever Whithersoever Wishes
Proverbs 21
1. The king's heart in the hand of the Lord














XXI.

(1) As the rivers of water.--Channels for irrigation (comp. Psalm 1:3). He turns the heart of the king, whose favour is as the latter rain (Proverbs 16:15) and dew (Proverbs 19:12), now towards one suppliant and now towards another, as He thinks fit, for "the hearts of kings are in His rule and governance."

Verse 1. - The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. We are to think of the little channels used for irrigation. As these are altogether under the gardener's control, so the heart of the king, who might seem to have no superior, is directed by God. He turneth it whithersoever he will. By hidden influences and providential arrangements God disposes the monarch to order his government so as to carry out his designs, to spread around joy and plenty. The system of irrigation signified in this passage is still to be seen in Eastern lands. "Flower beds and gardens of herbs are always made at a little lower level than the surrounding ground, and are divided into small squares, a slight edging of earth banking the whole round on each side. Water is then let in, and floods the entire surface till the soil is thoroughly saturated; after which the moisture is turned off to another bed, by simply closing the opening in the one under water, by a turn of the bare foot of the gardener, and making another in the same way with the foot, in the next bed, and thus the whole garden is in due course watered .... Only, in this case, the hand is supposed to make the gap in the clay bank of the streamlet, and divert the current" (Geikie, 'Holy Land and Bible,' 1:9). So in Virgil we find ('Ecl.,' 3:111) -

"Claudite jam rivos, pueri; sat prata biberunt."

"Now close the cuts; enough the meads have drunk."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
The king’s
מֶ֭לֶךְ (me·leḵ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4428: A king

heart
לֶב־ (leḇ-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3820: The heart, the feelings, the will, the intellect, centre

is a waterway
פַּלְגֵי־ (pal·ḡê-)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 6388: A channel, canal

in the hand
בְּיַד־ (bə·yaḏ-)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 3027: A hand

of the LORD;
יְהוָ֑ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

He directs it
יַטֶּֽנּוּ׃ (yaṭ·ṭen·nū)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine singular | third person masculine singular
Strong's 5186: To stretch out, spread out, extend, incline, bend

where
עַֽל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

He pleases.
יַחְפֹּ֣ץ (yaḥ·pōṣ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 2654: To incline to, to bend, to be pleased with, desire


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in Yahweh's hand (Prov. Pro Pr)
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