Proverbs 4:23
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And keep watch over your heart with all care; so you will have life.
Webster's Revision
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
World English Bible
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Clarke's Proverbs 4:23 Bible Commentary
Keep thy heart with all diligence - "Above all keeping," guard thy heart. He who knows any thing of himself, knows how apt his affections are to go astray.
For out of it are the issues of life - תוצאות חיים totseoth chaiyim, "the goings out of lives." Is not this a plain allusion to the arteries which carry the blood from the heart through the whole body, and to the utmost extremities? As long as the heart is capable of receiving and propelling the blood, so long life is continued. Now as the heart is the fountain whence all the streams of life proceed, care must be taken that the fountain be not stopped up nor injured. A double watch for its safety must be kept up. So in spiritual things: the heart is the seat of the Lord of life and glory; and the streams of spiritual life proceed from him to all the powers and faculties of the soul. Watch with all diligence, that this fountain be not sealed up, nor these streams of life be cut off. Therefore "put away from thee a froward mouth and perverse lips - and let thy eyes look straight on." Or, in other words, look inwardlook onward - look upward.
I know that the twenty-third verse is understood as principally referring to the evils which proceed from the heart, and which must be guarded against; and the good purposes that must be formed in it, from which life takes its colouring. The former should be opposed; the latter should be encouraged and strengthened. If the heart be pure and holy, all its purposes will be just and good. If it be impure and defiled, nothing will proceed from it but abomination. But though all this be true, I have preferred following what I believe to be the metaphor in the text.
Barnes's Proverbs 4:23 Bible Commentary
Better, as in the margin, i. e., with more vigilance than men use over anything else. The words that follow carry on the same similitude. The fountains and wells of the East were watched over with special care. The heart is such a fountain, out of it flow the "issues" of life. Shall men let those streams be tainted at the fountain-head?
Wesley's Proverbs 4:23 Bible Commentary
4:23 Heart - Thy thoughts, will, and affections. For - From thence proceed all the actions, as of the natural, so of the spiritual life, which lead to eternal life.