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Selected Verse: Proverbs 21:1 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Pr 21:1 |
King James |
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
(Pro. 21:1-31)
rivers--irrigating channels (Psa 1:3), whose course was easily turned (compare Deu 11:10). God disposes even kings as He pleases (Pro 16:9; Psa 33:15). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
| Rivers of water - See the Psa 1:3 note. As the cultivator directs the stream into the channels where it is most wanted, so Yahweh directs the thoughts of the true king, that his favors may fall, not at random, but in harmony with a divine order. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
The group, like the preceding one, now closes with a proverb of the king.
A king's heart in Jahve's hand is like brooks of water;
He turneth it whithersoever He will.
Brook and canal (the Quinta: ὑδραγωγοί) are both called פּלג, or פּלג, Job 20:17, Arab. falaj (from פּלג, to divide, according to which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, διαρέσεις; Venet. διανομαί; Jerome, divisiones); Jkt has the explanation of the word: "falaj is the name given to flowing water, particularly the brook from a spring, and every canal which is led from a spring out over flat ground." Such brooks of water are the heart of a king, i.e., it is compared to such, in Jahve's hand. The second line contains the point of comparison: He inclines it, gives to it the direction (הטּה, causat. of נטה, Num 21:15) toward whatever He will (חפץ denotes willing, as a bending and inclining, viz., of the will; vid., at Pro 18:2). Rightly Hitzig finds it not accidental that just the expression "brooks of water" is chosen as the figure for tractableness and subjection to government. In Isa 32:2, the princes of Judah are compared to "rivers of water in a dry place" with reference to the exhaustion of the land during the oppression of the Assyrian invasion; the proverb has specially in view evidences of kindness proceeding from the heart, as at Pro 16:15 the favour of the king is compared to clouds of latter rain emptying themselves in beneficent showers, and at Pro 19:12 to the dew refreshing the plants. But the speciality of the comparison here is, that the heart of the king, however highly exalted above his subjects, and so removed from their knowledge he may be, has yet One above it by whom it is moved by hidden influences, e.g., the prayer of the oppressed; for man is indeed free, yet he acts under the influence of divinely-directed circumstances and divine operations; and though he reject the guidance of God, yet from his conduct nothing results which the Omniscient, who is surprised by nothing, does not make subservient to His will in the world-plan of redemption. Rightly the Midrash: God gives to the world good or bad kings, according as He seeks to bless it or to visit it with punishment; all decisions that go forth from the king's mouth come לכתחלה, i.e., in their first commencement and their last reason they come from the Holy One. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| The kings - He names kings not to exclude other men, but because they are more arbitrary and uncontrollable than others. As rivers - Which husband - men draw by little channels into the adjacent grounds as they please. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord - The Lord is the only ruler of princes. He alone can govern and direct their counsels. But there is an allusion here to the Eastern method of watering their lands. Several canals are dug from one stream; and by opening a particular sluice, the husbandman can direct a stream to whatever part he please: so the king's heart, wherever it turns; i.e., to whomsoever he is disposed to show favor. As the land is enriched with the streams employed in irrigation; so is the favourite of the king, by the royal bounty: and God can induce the king to give that bounty to whomsoever he will. See Harmer. |
15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
10 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
12 The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.
15 In the light of the king's countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.
2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
2 A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
15 And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.
17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.