Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, May 13th, 2025
the Fourth Week after Easter
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Bishop's Bible

Proverbs 21:4

An high looke, a proude heart, and the plowing of the vngodly is sinne.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Pride;   Thompson Chain Reference - Humility-Pride;   Pride;   The Topic Concordance - Heart;   Pride/arrogance;   Sin;   Wickedness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Pride;   Sin;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Plow;   Proverbs, Book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - High;   Look;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The lamp that guides the wicked—haughty eyes and an arrogant heart—is sin.
Hebrew Names Version
A high look, and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.
King James Version
An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
English Standard Version
Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.
New American Standard Bible
Haughty eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.
New Century Version
Proud looks, proud thoughts, and evil actions are sin.
Amplified Bible
Haughty and arrogant eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked [their self-centered pride], is sin [in the eyes of God].
World English Bible
A high look, and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Geneva Bible (1587)
A hautie looke, and a proude heart, which is the light of the wicked, is sinne.
Legacy Standard Bible
Haughty eyes and a proud heart—The fallow ground of the wicked—are sin.
Berean Standard Bible
Haughty eyes and a proud heart-the guides of the wicked-are sin.
Contemporary English Version
Evil people are proud and arrogant, but sin is the only crop they produce.
Complete Jewish Bible
Haughty looks, a proud heart — what the wicked plow is sin.
Darby Translation
Lofty eyes, and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Easy-to-Read Version
Proud looks and proud thoughts are sins. They show a person is evil.
George Lamsa Translation
Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and the posterity of the wicked are sinful.
Good News Translation
Wicked people are controlled by their conceit and arrogance, and this is sinful.
Lexham English Bible
Haughtiness of the eyes and pride of heart, the lamp of the wicked are sin.
Literal Translation
High eyes, a proud heart, and the uncultivated mind of the wicked, is sin.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
A presumptuous loke, a proude stomacke, & the lanterne of the vngodly is synne.
American Standard Version
A high look, and a proud heart, Even the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Bible in Basic English
A high look and a heart of pride, *** Three astrics are used as a sign that one or more Hebrew words, necessary to the sense, have been taken out at some time or other. of the evil-doer is sin.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
A haughty look, and a proud heart--the tillage of the wicked is sin.
King James Version (1611)
An high looke, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sinne.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
A high-minded man is stout-hearted in his pride; and the lamp of the wicked is sin.
English Revised Version
An high look, and a proud heart, even the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Enhaunsyng of iyen is alargyng of the herte; the lanterne of wickid men is synne.
Update Bible Version
A high look, and a proud heart, [Even] the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
Webster's Bible Translation
A high look, and a proud heart, [and] the plowing of the wicked, [is] sin.
New English Translation
Haughty eyes and a proud heart— the agricultural product of the wicked is sin.
New King James Version
A haughty look, a proud heart,And the plowing [fn] of the wicked are sin.
New Living Translation
Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and evil actions are all sin.
New Life Bible
Eyes lifted high and a proud heart is sin and is the lamp of the sinful.
New Revised Standard
Haughty eyes and a proud heart— the lamp of the wicked—are sin.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Loftiness of eyes, and ambition of heart - the lamp of the lawless, are sin.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Haughtiness of the eyes is the enlarging of the heart: the lamp of the wicked is sin.
Revised Standard Version
Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.
Young's Literal Translation
Loftiness of eyes, and breadth of heart, Tillage of the wicked [is] sin.
THE MESSAGE
Arrogance and pride—distinguishing marks in the wicked— are just plain sin.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Haughty eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.

Contextual Overview

4 An high looke, a proude heart, and the plowing of the vngodly is sinne.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

An high look: Heb. Haughtiness of eyes, Proverbs 6:17, Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 30:13, Psalms 10:4, Isaiah 2:11, Isaiah 2:17, Isaiah 3:16, Luke 18:14, 1 Peter 5:5

and the: Proverbs 21:27, Proverbs 15:8, Romans 14:23

plowing of the wicked: or, light of the wicked

Reciprocal: Leviticus 11:34 - General 2 Samuel 22:28 - but thine Proverbs 15:9 - The way Ezekiel 16:49 - pride Haggai 2:14 - So is this people Zechariah 14:20 - shall there Luke 21:34 - your hearts Titus 1:15 - but

Cross-References

Genesis 21:10
Wherfore she sayd vnto Abraham: cast out this bond woman, & her sonne: for the sonne of this bonde woman, shal not be heyre with my sonne Isahac.
Genesis 21:12
And God sayde vnto Abraham, let it not be greeuous in thy sight, because of the lad and of thy bonde woman: In al that Sara hath said vnto thee, heare her voyce, for in Isahac shall thy seede be called.
Genesis 21:22
And at the same season, Abimelech and Phicol his chiefe captayne spake vnto Abraham, saying, God [is] with thee in all that thou doest:
Genesis 21:23
And nowe therefore, sweare vnto me euen here by God, that thou wylt not hurt me, nor my chyldren, nor my chyldrens children: but that thou shalt deale with me and the countrey where thou hast ben a straunger, accordyng vnto the kyndnesse that I haue shewed thee.
Exodus 12:48
If a straunger also dwell among you, and wyl holde passouer vnto the Lord, let him circumcise all that be males, and then let him come and obserue it, and he shalbe as one that is borne in the lande: for no vncircumcised person shall eate therof.
Leviticus 12:3
And in the eyght day, the fleshe of the childes foreskinne shalbe cut away.
Deuteronomy 12:32
For they haue burned both their sonnes and their daughters with fire before their gods. Therefore whatsoeuer I commaunde you, take heede ye do it: and put thou naught therto, nor take ought therefrom.
Luke 1:6
They were both ryghteous before God, and walked in all the lawes and ordinaunces of the Lorde, that no man coulde fynde fault with them.
Luke 1:59
And it came to passe, that on the eyght day they came to circumcise the chylde, and called his name Zacharias, after the name of his father.
Luke 2:21
And when the eygth day was come, that the chylde shoulde be circumcised, his name was called Iesus, whiche was so named of the Angel, before he was conceaued in the wombe.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

An high look, and a proud heart,.... The former is a sign of the latter, and commonly go together, and are both abominable to the Lord; see Psalms 101:5. A man that looks above others, and with disdain upon them, shows that pride reigns in him, and swells his mind with a vain opinion of himself; this may be observed in every self-righteous man; the parable of the Pharisee and publican is a comment upon it; sometimes there may be a proud heart under a disguise of humility; but the pride of the heart is often discovered by the look of the eyes. It may be rendered, "the elevation of the eyes, and the enlargement of the heart" p; but not to be understood in a good sense, of the lifting up of the eyes in prayer to God, with faith and fear; nor of the enlargement of the heart with solid knowledge and wisdom, such as Solomon had; but in a bad sense, of the lofty looks and haughtiness of man towards his fellow creatures, and of his unbounded desires after filthy lucre or sinful lusts: the Targum renders it,

"the swelling of the heart,''

with pride and vanity;

[and] the ploughing of the wicked [is] sin; taken literally; not that it is so in itself; for it is a most useful invention, and exceeding beneficial to mankind, and is to be ascribed to God himself; and of this the Heathens are so sensible, that they have a deity to whom they attribute it, and whom they call Ceres q, from חרש, to plough; it only denotes that all the civil actions of a wicked man, one being put for all, are attended with sin; he sins in all he does. Or, metaphorically, for his schemes, contrivances, and projects, which are the ploughing of his mind; these are all sinful, or tend to that which is so. Some understand this particularly of his high look and proud heart, which are his ploughing and his sin; Ben Melech; and others of his ploughing, or persecuting and oppressing, the poor. The word is sometimes used for a lamp or light, and is so rendered here by some, "the light of the wicked [is] sin" r; their outward happiness and prosperity leads them into sin, involves them in guilt, and so brings them to ruin and destruction: and this way go the Targum: Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions.

p רום עינים ורחב לב "elatio oculorum et latitudo cordis", Piscator, Michaelis, Cocceius, Schultens. q "Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram instituit", Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. r נר רשעים "Incerna impiorum", V. L. Mercerus, Gejerus, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The plowing - The Hebrew word, with a change in its vowel points, may signify either:

(1) the “fallow field,” the “tillage” of Proverbs 13:23, or

(2) the lamp.

According to: (1) the verse would mean, “The outward signs of pride, the proud heart, the broad lands of the wicked, all are evil.” (2) however, belongs, as it were, to the language of the time and of the book Proverbs 13:9; Proverbs 24:20. The “lamp of the wicked” is their outwardly bright prosperity.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 21:4. A high look — The evidence of pride, self-conceit, and vanity. A proud heart, from which the high look, c., come.

And the ploughing — נר ner, lucerna, the lamp, the prosperity and posterity of the wicked is sin - it is evil in the seed, and evil in the root, evil in the branch, and evil in the fruit. They are full of sin themselves, and what they do is sinful.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile