A Man Plans His Way and Yahweh Directs His Steps
1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh. 2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the motives. 3 Commit your deeds to Yahweh, and your plans shall succeed. 4 Yahweh has made everything for its own end— yes, even the wicked for the day of evil. 5 Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh; they shall certainly not be unpunished. 6 By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for. By the fear of Yahweh men depart from evil. 7 When a man’s ways please Yahweh, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. 8 Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues with injustice. 9 A man’s heart plans his course, but Yahweh directs his steps. 10 Inspired judgments are on the lips of the king. He shall not betray his mouth. 11 Honest balances and scales are Yahweh’s; all the weights in the bag are his work. 12 It is an abomination for kings to do wrong, for the throne is established by righteousness. 13 Righteous lips are the delight of kings. They value one who speaks the truth. 14 The king’s wrath is a messenger of death, but a wise man will pacify it. 15 In the light of the king’s face is life. His favor is like a cloud of the spring rain. 16 How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! Yes, to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. 17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He who keeps his way preserves his soul.
The densest cluster about God in the whole collection sits here, and it is about the gap between what a man intends and what happens.
Eleven of these seventeen verses name Yahweh, which makes this the most concentrated theological passage in the collection. And the subject is not worship. It is planning. What a man decides to do, and what becomes of the decision.
The frame is set by two verses that say almost the same thing at either end of the cluster. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh. And then, more famously: A man's heart plans his course, but Yahweh directs his steps. Neither verse cancels the planning. Both assume a man deliberating properly, and then locate the outcome elsewhere. That is the collection's settled way of holding responsibility and providence together. The instruction between them is the practical conclusion: Commit your deeds to Yahweh, and your plans shall succeed.
The second verse in the run is the one that stings: All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the motives. Self-assessment is not described as dishonest. It is described as universally favorable, which is why an external weighing is necessary. The verb is a merchant's. It puts the motive on the same scale the chapter later says belongs to God: Honest balances and scales are Yahweh's; all the weights in the bag are his work.
That verse about scales deserves its own note. The book has already called a false balance an abomination Proverbs 11:1. Here it goes further and says the standard itself is his. It is not merely that he disapproves of cheating. Accurate measurement is a divine property. A merchant with true weights is doing something that belongs to God.
Several sayings about kings follow, and they are addressed to men who deal with power. The king's wrath is a messenger of death and his favor is like a cloud of the spring rain — the rain that decides the harvest. Both are stated without approval or complaint. And into the middle of that court material comes a valuation that reorders it: How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! A man who has just been told how to survive a king's mood is now told what is actually worth having.
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