Proverbs 20:27

The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
spirit	נִשְׁמַ֣ת nish.Mat	H5397	a puff · noun, common feminine singular construct
man	אָדָ֑ם 'a.Dam	H120	ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
candle	נֵ֣ר ner	H5216	a lamp (i.e. the burner) or light (literally or figurat… · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD	יְ֭הוָה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
searching	חֹ֝פֵ֗שׂ cho.Fes	H2664	to seek · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
parts	חַדְרֵי chad.rei-	H2315	an apartment (usually literal) · noun, common masculine plural construct
belly	בָֽטֶן Va.ten	H990	the belly · noun, common feminine singular absolute

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

1 Corinthians 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit o…
Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, a…
Job 32:8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
1 John 3:19-21 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or…
2 Corinthians 4:2-6 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestatio…
Proverbs 20:30 The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.

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

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:27

We have here the dignity of the soul, the great soul of man, that light which lighteth every man. 1. It is a divine light; it is the candle of the Lord, a candle of his lighting, for it is the inspiration of the Almighty that gives us understanding. He forms the spirit of man within him. It is after the image of God that man is created in knowledge. Conscience, that noble faculty, is God's deputy in the soul; it is a candle not only lighted by him, but lighted for him. The Father of spirits is therefore called the Father of lights. 2. It is a discovering light. By the help of reason we come to know men, to judge of their characters, and dive into their designs; by the help of conscience we c…

Read the whole note in the console

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 20:27

The spirit . . . Lord--Men's minds are God's gifts, and thus able to search one another (compare Pro 20:5; Pro 18:8, Pro 18:17; Co1 2:11).

John Gill on Proverbs 20:27

The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord,.... The rational soul of man is a light set up in him; this is what is commonly called the light of nature; it was a bright and burning light at first, but through sin is become a very feeble one; by which men have only a glimmering view of divine things, of God and his worship, and of what he would have done, or not done; by this light men do but grope after him, if happily they may find him and know his will; it is but like a candle light at best, in comparison of divine revelation, or the Gospel of the grace of God, which has shone out like the sun in its meridian glory; and especially in comparison of the sun of righteousness, Christ Jesus, an…

Read the whole note in the console

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 20:27

With a proverb of a light that was extinguished, Pro 20:20 began the group; the proverb of God's light, which here follows, we take as the beginning of a new group. 27 A candle of Jahve is the soul of man, Searching through all the chambers of the heart. If the O.T. language has a separate word to denote the self-conscious personal human spirit in contradistinction to the spirit of a beast, this word, according to the usage of the language, as Reuchlin, in an appendix to Aben Ezra, remarks, is נשׁמה; it is so called as the principle of life breathed immediately by God into the body (vid., at Gen 2:7; Gen 7:22). Indeed, that which is here said of the human spirit would not be said of the spir…

The Church Fathers

The lamp of the Lord is the spirit of man, etc. The illumination of the divine breath, when it has come into the mind of man, illuminating it to itself, shows it was bearing perverse thoughts before the coming of the Holy Spirit, and it did not know how to weigh them.
— Bede, Commentary on Proverbs

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

Belly — The seat of the carnal affections (Titus 1:12; Phil. 3:19; Rom. 16:18). The word is used symbolically for the heart (Prov. 18:8; 20:27; 22:18, marg.). The “belly of hell” signifies the grave or…
Candle — Heb. ner, Job 18:6; 29:3; Ps. 18:28; Prov. 24:20, in all which places the Revised Version and margin of Authorized Version have “lamp,” by which the word is elsewhere frequently rendered. The Hebrew…
Belly · 15:2,35;20:20; — 15:2,35;20:20;
Conscience · Witnesses in man — Witnesses in man
Lamps · Illustrative: Of spirit of man — Illustrative: Of spirit of man
Man · SPIRIT — SPIRIT

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 20:27

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:27

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 20:27

John Gill on Proverbs 20:27

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 20:27

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 20:27

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:27

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 20:27

John Gill on Proverbs 20:27

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 20:27

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 20:27

Rashi on Proverbs 20:27