Proverbs 4:27

Amplified Bible

Do not turn away to the right nor to the left [where evil may lurk]; Turn your foot from [the path of] evil.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Don’t turn to the right or to the left;keep your feet away from evil.

Hebrew Names Version
Don't turn to the right hand nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.

King James Version
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

English Standard Version
Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

New Century Version
Don't turn off the road of goodness; keep away from evil paths.

New English Translation
Do not turn to the right or to the left; turn yourself away from evil.

New American Standard Bible
Do not turn to the right or to the left; Turn your foot from evil.

World English Bible
Don't turn to the right hand nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Turne not to the right hande, nor to the left, but remooue thy foote from euill.

Legacy Standard Bible
Do not turn to the right nor to the left;Turn your foot from evil.

Berean Standard Bible
Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil.

Contemporary English Version
Don't make a mistake by turning to the right or the left.

Complete Jewish Bible
then deviate neither right nor left; and keep your foot far from evil.

Darby Translation
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left; remove thy foot from evil.

Easy-to-Read Version
Don't go to the right or to the left, and you will stay away from evil.

George Lamsa Translation
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left; but remove your foot from evil.

Good News Translation
Avoid evil and walk straight ahead. Don't go one step off the right way.

Lexham English Bible
Do not swerve right or left; remove your foot from evil.

Literal Translation
Do not turn to the right hand or to the left; turn your foot aside from evil.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Turne not asyde, nether to the right hande ner to the lefte, but witholde thy fote from euell.

American Standard Version
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: Remove thy foot from evil.

Bible in Basic English
Let there be no turning to the right or to the left, keep your feet from evil.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left; remove thy foot from evil.

King James Version (1611)
Turne not to the right hande nor to the left: remoue thy foot fro euil.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Turne not aside, neither to the right hande nor to the left: but wihholde thy foote from euyll.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left, but turn away thy foot from an evil way: [for God knows the ways on the right hand, but those on the left are crooked:] and he will make thy ways straight, and will guide thy steps in peace.

English Revised Version
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Bowe thou not to the riytside, nether to the leftside; turne awei thi foot fro yuel. For the Lord knowith the weies that ben at the riytside; but the weies ben weiward, that ben at the leftside. Forsothe he schal make thi goyngis riytful; and thi weies schulen be brouyt forth in pees.

Update Bible Version
Don't turn to the right hand nor to the left: Remove your foot from evil.

Webster's Bible Translation
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

New King James Version
Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil.

New Living Translation
Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

New Life Bible
Do not turn to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from sin.

New Revised Standard
Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Decline not, to the right hand or to the left, - Turn away thy foot from wickedness.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knoweth the ways that are on the right hand: but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But he will make thy courses straight, he will bring forward thy ways in peace.

Revised Standard Version
Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

Young's Literal Translation
Incline not [to] the right or to the left, Turn aside thy foot from evil!

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.

Contextual Overview

²⁰My son, pay attention to my words and be willing to learn; Open your ears to my sayings. ²¹Do not let them escape from your sight; Keep them in the center of your heart. ²²For they are life to those who find them, And healing and health to all their flesh. ²³Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. ²⁴Put away from you a deceitful (lying, misleading) mouth, And put devious lips far from you. ²⁵Let 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]. ²⁶Consider well and watch carefully the path of your feet, And all your ways will be steadfast and sure. ²⁷Do not turn away to the right nor to the left [where evil may lurk]; Turn your foot from [the path of] evil.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Turn: Deuteronomy 5:32, Deuteronomy 12:32, Deuteronomy 28:14, Joshua 1:7

remove: Proverbs 16:17, Isaiah 1:16, Romans 12:9

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 4:15 - Take ye Deuteronomy 17:11 - to the right Joshua 23:6 - that ye 2 Samuel 2:19 - turned 2 Samuel 14:19 - turn 1 Kings 22:43 - he turned 2 Kings 22:2 - turned 2 Chronicles 34:2 - declined Psalms 39:1 - I said Proverbs 1:15 - refrain Isaiah 30:21 - when ye turn to the right Isaiah 56:2 - keepeth his Matthew 7:14 - narrow Hebrews 12:13 - make

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Turn not to the right hand nor to the left,.... Either into the road of immorality and profaneness, or into that of error, superstition, and false worship; but attend to the way of holiness and truth, directed to in the word of God; see Isaiah 30:21; nor be moved out of it by threatenings and menaces, nor by flatteries and promises; neither be cast down with adversity, nor be lifted up with prosperity; but keep on in an even way, attending to that which is just and right; leaving all events with God, as knowing you are in the way of your duty, and in which he would have you walk;

remove, by foot from evil; from walking in evil ways and along with evil men, and from doing evil things; abstain from all appearance of evil, keep at a distance from it; the evil of sin brings on the evil of punishment. There are two verses added in the Septuagint, Arabic, and Vulgate Latin versions, which are not in the Hebrew text;

"for the ways which are on the right hand God knoweth; but those that are on the left are perverse. He will make thy paths right, and promote thy goings in peace.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The ever-recurring image of the straight road on which no one ever loses his way represents here as elsewhere the onward course through life of the man who seeks and finds wisdom.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 4:27. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left — Avoid all crooked ways. Be an upright, downright, and straight-forward man. Avoid tricks, wiles, and deceptions of this kind.

To this the Septuagint and Vulgate add the following verse: Αυτος δε ορθας ποιησει τας τροχιας σου, τας δε πορειας σου εν ειρηνη προαξει. Ipse autem rectos faciet cursus tuos; itinera autem tua in pace producet. "For himself will make thy paths straight and thy journeyings will he conduct in prosperity." The Arabic has also a clause to the same effect. But nothing like this is found in the Hebrew, Chaldee, or Syriac; nor in the Vulgate, as printed in the Complutensian Polyglot; nor in that of Antwerp or of Paris; but it is in the Greek text of those editions, in the editio princeps of the Vulgate, in five of my own MSS., and in the old MS. Bible. De Lyra rejects the clause as a gloss that stands on no authority. If an addition, it is certainly very ancient; and the promise it contains is true whether the clause be authentic or not.