Proverbs 4:25
New International Version
Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.

New Living Translation
Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.

English Standard Version
Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

Berean Standard Bible
Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

King James Bible
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

New King James Version
Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you.

New American Standard Bible
Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

NASB 1995
Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

NASB 1977
Let your eyes look directly ahead, And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

Legacy Standard Bible
Let your eyes look directly ahead And even let your eyelids be fixed straight in front of you.

Amplified Bible
Let your eyes look directly ahead [toward the path of moral courage] And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you [toward the path of integrity].

Christian Standard Bible
Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

American Standard Version
Let thine eyes look right on, And let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Let your eyes see in uprightness and let your eyelashes be straight before you.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids assent to just things.

Contemporary English Version
Keep looking straight ahead, without turning aside.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.

English Revised Version
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Let your eyes look straight ahead and your sight be focused in front of you.

Good News Translation
Look straight ahead with honest confidence; don't hang your head in shame.

International Standard Version
Let your eyes look directly ahead; fix your gaze straight in front of you.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Let thine eyes look right on, And let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

Literal Standard Version
Your eyes look straightforward, | And your eyelids look straight before you.

Majority Standard Bible
Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

New American Bible
Let your eyes look straight ahead and your gaze be focused forward.

NET Bible
Let your eyes look directly in front of you and let your gaze look straight before you.

New Revised Standard Version
Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

New Heart English Bible
Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

Webster's Bible Translation
Let thy eyes look right on, and let thy eyelids look straight before thee.

World English Bible
Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

Young's Literal Translation
Thine eyes do look straightforward, And thine eyelids look straight before thee.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Father's Instruction
24Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech. 25Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. 26Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.…

Cross References
Proverbs 4:24
Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech.

Proverbs 4:26
Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.


Treasury of Scripture

Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you.

Proverbs 23:5,33
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven…

Job 31:1
I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

Psalm 119:37
Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

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Ahead Directly Eyelids Eyes Fix Fixed Forward Front Gaze Right Straight Straightforward
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Ahead Directly Eyelids Eyes Fix Fixed Forward Front Gaze Right Straight Straightforward
Proverbs 4
1. persuades to wisdom
14. and to show wickedness
20. He exhorts to sanctification














(25) Let thine eyes look right on.--Comp. the advice of Ecclesiasticus 7:36, "Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember the end," and of Hebrews 12:2, to look "unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."

Verse 25 - Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids lock straight before thee. "To look right on" and "to look straight before one" is to fix the eyes steadily and unswervingly upon an object before them, not to allow the gaze to deflect either to the right hand or to the left. As a noun, the word nokakh, rendered "right on," signifies what is straight in front of one; adverbially, it has the same meaning as that given in the Authorized Version. The corresponding "before" (neged) is substantively the side of any object which is opposite one, and as a preposition is equivalent to "before," "in the presence of," like the Latin coram. The versions (LXX., Syriac, Targum) take nokakh in the sense of "right things:" "Let thine eyes look at right things;" contemplate them, aim at justice and equity. This meaning is given to the cognate adjective nakoakh in Proverbs 8:9; Proverbs 24:26; Isaiah 26:10; Isaiah 30:10; Isaiah 59:14; but in the Proverbs the word nokakh only occurs twice (here and ver. 21), either as an adverb, "right on," "straightforwardly," or as a preposition, "before." Look straight. Gesenius takes this verb yashar in hiph., "to make straight," as used elliptically: "Let thine eyelids direct a way before thee;" but the meaning is the same as "Let them look straight before thee." The Syriac, Gejerus, and Holden render, "Let thine eyelids direct thy way before thee;" i.e. do nothing rashly, but everything with premeditation; examine thy conduct, and see that it is right. The verb yashar has this meaning, "to direct," in Proverbs 3:6; Proverbs 11:5, but it is here used intransitively (Mercerus). Eyelids (aph'appim); so called from their fluttering, rapid motion, here used by way of poetic parallelism with "eyes." What the command inculcates is simplicity of aim or principle, singleness of motive. The moral gaze is to be steadily fixed, because if it wanders indolently, lasciviously, aimlessly, it imperils the purity of the soul. This verse may be understood, as Zockler, as containing a command levelled against dishonest practices. The man who intends to cheat his neighbour looks this way and that how he may deceive him. Such an interpretation may be maintained on the ground that the former verse is directed against falsehood in speech; this against falsehood in action. But the former view is preferable. If you wish to keep the heart, you must be guided by simplicity of aim; look not aside either to the one hand or to the other, lest you may be led astray by the seductions and temptations which imperil the onward and upward progress of the soul. The passage reminds us of the "single eye" (ἄπλους), "simple," i.e. intent on heaven and God, of Matthew 6:22.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Let your eyes
עֵ֭ינֶיךָ (‘ê·ne·ḵā)
Noun - cdc | second person masculine singular
Strong's 5869: An eye, a fountain

look
יַבִּ֑יטוּ (yab·bî·ṭū)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 5027: To scan, look intently at, to regard

forward;
לְנֹ֣כַח (lə·nō·ḵaḥ)
Preposition-l
Strong's 5227: The front part, opposite, in front of, forward, in behalf of

fix your gaze
וְ֝עַפְעַפֶּ֗יךָ (wə·‘ap̄·‘ap·pe·ḵā)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - mdc | second person masculine singular
Strong's 6079: An eyelash, morning ray

straight
יַיְשִׁ֥רוּ (yay·ši·rū)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 3474: To be straight, even, to be, right, pleasant, prosperous

ahead.
נֶגְדֶּֽךָ׃ (neḡ·de·ḵā)
Preposition | second person masculine singular
Strong's 5048: A front, part opposite, a counterpart, mate, over against, before


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 4:25 Let your eyes look straight ahead (Prov. Pro Pr)
Proverbs 4:24
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