Proverbs 3:3
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Let not mercy and truth forsake you: bind them about your neck; write them on the table of your heart:
American King James Version (AKJV)
Let not mercy and truth forsake you: bind them about your neck; write them on the table of your heart:
American Standard Version (ASV)
Let not kindness and truth forsake thee: Bind them about thy neck; Write them upon the tablet of thy heart:
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Let not mercy and good faith go from you; let them be hanging round your neck, recorded on your heart;
Webster's Revision
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thy heart:
World English Bible
Don't let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
Definitions for Proverbs 3:3
Clarke's Proverbs 3:3 Bible Commentary
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee - Let these be thy constant companions through life.
Bind them about thy neck - Keep them constantly in view. Write them upon the table of thine heart - let them be thy moving principles; feel them as well as see them.
Barnes's Proverbs 3:3 Bible Commentary
The two elements of a morally perfect character:
(1) "Mercy," shutting out all forms of selfishness and hate.
(2) "Truth," shutting out all deliberate falsehood, all hypocrisy, conscious or unconscious.
The words that follow possibly refer to the Eastern custom of writing sacred names on pieces of papyrus or parchment, and wearing them around the neck, as charms and talismans against evil. Compare, however, 1 Peter 3:3-4.
Wesley's Proverbs 3:3 Bible Commentary
3:3 Mercy - Mercy denotes all benignity, charity, and readiness to do good to others: truth or faithfulness respects all those duties which we owe to God or man, which we have special obligation from the rules of justice. Bind them - Like a chain, wherewith persons adorn their necks.Table - In thy mind and heart, in which all God's commands are to be received and engraven.