Proverbs 21:1

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

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

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
king’s	מֶ֭לֶךְ Me.lekh	H4428	a king · noun, common masculine singular absolute
heart	לֶב lev-	H3820	the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct
hand	בְּיַד be.yad-	H3027	a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
LORD	יְהוָ֑ה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
rivers	פַּלְגֵי pal.gei-	H6388	a rill (i.e. small channel of water · noun, common masculine plural construct
water	מַ֣יִם Ma.yim	H4325	water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
turneth	יַטֶּֽנּוּ ya.Te.nu	H5186	to stretch or spread out · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
will	יַחְפֹּ֣ץ yach.Potz	H2654	properly · verb, qal imperfect, 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.
Ezra 6:22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria u…
Proverbs 20:24 Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
Acts 7:10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor…
Proverbs 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Ezra 7:27-28 Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is…
Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabit…
Psalms 106:46 He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.

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

Commentary

John Gill on Proverbs 21:1

The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water,.... The heart of every king, and all that is in it, his thoughts, counsels, purposes, and designs; the hearts of bad kings, as Pharaoh, whom the Lord hardened and softened at pleasure; the antichristian kings, into whose hearts he put it to give their kingdoms to the beast, Revelation 17:17; the hearts of good kings, as David, Solomon, Cyrus, and others: and if the hearts of kings are in the hands of the Lord, which are full of things of the greatest importance with respect to the government of the world; and which are generally more untractable and unmanageable; and who are more resolute and positive, and will have their o…

Read the whole note in the console

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 21:1

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 poi…

Read the whole note in the console

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 21:1

A king was the most powerful individual in an ancient nation, and it seemed that he could do as he pleased. However, God directs the heart of the king.

Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).

The Church Fathers

If "the heart of the king is in the hand of God," he will not be saved through power of arms but through the divine guidance. Now, not any random person is in the hand of God but one who is worthy of the name of king.
— Basil of Caesarea, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 15:9 (PSALM 32)

A desire to learn and a yearning for heavenly things is suitable to a religious emperor; for thus you will truly have "your heart" also "in the hand of God." Since then your piety desired to learn from us the faith of the catholic church, giving thanks for these things to the Lord, we counseled above all things to remind your piety of the faith confessed by the fathers at Nicea.
— Athanasius of Alexandria, LETTER TO JOVIAN 56:1

Who gives salvation to kings. To what kings? "The heart of the king is in the hand of God." Even of Julian the persecutor, and of Nero, and of Decius? The heart of the king is in the hand of God. Those who reign over their own body, who subject their body and reduce it to servitude, lest, while preaching to others, they themselves be found reprobate. These are the kings of whom wisdom says in Proverbs: "She gives a kingdom to kings."
— Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 54 (PSALM 143)

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

Agriculture — Tilling the ground (Gen. 2:15; 4:2, 3, 12) and rearing cattle were the chief employments in ancient times. The Egyptians excelled in agriculture. And after the Israelites entered into the possession…
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…
Heart · 6:22;7:27; — 6:22;7:27;
Heart, The · God: Influences — God: Influences
Irrigation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Rulers · CHARACTER AND QUALIFI — CHARACTER AND QUALIFI

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).