Proverbs 20:24

Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Man’s	גָ֑בֶר Ga.ver	H1397	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
goings	מִצְעֲדֵי mitz.'a.dei-	H4703	a step · noun, common masculine plural construct
LORD	מֵיהוָ֥ה me.Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title
man	וְ֝אָדָ֗ם ve.'a.Dam	H120	ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
understand	יָּבִ֥ין ya.Vin	H995	to separate mentally (or distinguish) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
way	דַּרְכּֽוֹ dar.Ko	H1870	a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Jeremiah 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Psalms 25:12 What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
Psalms 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.
Psalms 25:4 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.
Proverbs 14:8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.
Daniel 5:23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords,…
Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:24

We are here taught that in all our affairs, 1. We have a necessary and constant dependence upon God. All our natural actions depend upon his providence, all our spiritual actions upon his grace. The best man is no better than God makes him; and every creature is that to us which it is the will of God that it should be. Our enterprises succeed, not as we desire and design, but as God directs and disposes. The goings even of a strong man (so the word signifies) are of the Lord, for his strength is weakness without God, nor is the battle always to the strong. 2. We have no foresight of future events, and therefore know not how to forecast for them: How can a man understand his own way? How can…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 20:24

Man's goings--literally, "Stately steppings of a strong man." a man--any common man. understand--or, "perceive."

John Gill on Proverbs 20:24

Man's goings are of the Lord,.... In a natural and literal sense, the instruments of going are of the Lord; the act of motion from place to place is not without the concourse of his providence; as in him we live, and move, and have our being, so "in and by him we move"; he preserves our going out and coming in; and as the preservation, so the success and prosperity of journeying are owing to his providence, and the whole is under his care and direction: and so likewise, in a civil sense, all the civil concerns, business, and actions of life, are guided by his providence; there is a time for every purpose under heaven, and the success of all depends on a divine blessing; and things are with e…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 20:24

24 The steps of a man depend on Jahve; And a man - how can he understand his way? Line first is from Psa 37:23, but there, where the clause has the verbal predicate כּוננוּ, the meaning is that it is the gracious assistance of God, by virtue of which a man takes certain steps with his feet, while here we have before us a variation of the proverb "der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt" = man proposes, God disposes, Pro 16:9, Jer 10:23; for מן, as at Sa2 3:37; Psa 118:23, denotes God in general as conditioning, as the ultimate cause. Man is indeed free to turn himself hither or thither, to decide on this course of conduct or on that, and is therefore responsible for it; but the relations co-operating i…

The Church Fathers

The steps of a man are directed by the Lord. Whosoever among men walks the right path, this is not done by the liberty of human will, but by the governance of Him to whom Isaiah says, For you have worked all our works in us (Isaiah...).
— Bede, Commentary on Proverbs

Who among men can understand his way? In this, he says, it is manifestly clear that whatever good anyone has, he does not have it from himself, but by the grace of God, which neither by his own free will can he understand what he will be, nor how or how long he will live.
— Bede, Commentary on Proverbs

"The steps of man are directed by God." A mortal, that is a sinner [as such], cannot [of himself] know the ways of the Lord; in fact, since he is mortal, he has [of yet] neither died nor lived with Christ. Therefore in the journey to the kingdom of heaven the steps of man are directed by the Lord.
— John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, FRAGMENT 20:24

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Providence — Literally means foresight, but is generally used to denote God’s preserving and governing all things by means of second causes (Ps. 18:35; 63:8; Acts 17:28; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3). God’s providence…
Ignorance · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Man · Cannot direct his ways — Cannot direct his ways
Providence Of God, The · Is exercised in: Ordering the ways of men — Is exercised in: Ordering the ways of men

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Proverbs 20:24

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:24

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 20:24

John Gill on Proverbs 20:24

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 20:24

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 20:24

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:24

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 20:24

John Gill on Proverbs 20:24

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 20:24

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 20:24

Rashi on Proverbs 20:21