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Read the Bible

King James Version

Proverbs 20:18

Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Counsel;   Prudence;   War;   Wisdom;   Thompson Chain Reference - Advice;   Counsel;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - War, Holy War;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Finalize plans with counsel,and wage war with sound guidance.
Hebrew Names Version
Plans are established by advice; By wise guidance you wage war!
English Standard Version
Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.
New American Standard Bible
Prepare plans by consultation, And make war by wise guidance.
New Century Version
Get advice if you want your plans to work. If you go to war, get the advice of others.
Amplified Bible
Plans are established by counsel; So make war [only] with wise guidance.
World English Bible
Plans are established by advice; By wise guidance you wage war!
Geneva Bible (1587)
Establish the thoughtes by counsell: and by counsell make warre.
Legacy Standard Bible
Thoughts are established by counsel,So make war by guidance.
Berean Standard Bible
Set plans by consultation, and wage war under sound guidance.
Contemporary English Version
Be sure you have sound advice before making plans or starting a war.
Complete Jewish Bible
After consultation, plans succeed; so take wise advice when waging war.
Darby Translation
Plans are established by counsel; and with good advice make war.
Easy-to-Read Version
Get good advice when you make your plans. Before you start a war, find good advisors.
George Lamsa Translation
A good purpose is established by counsel; but by provocation war is made.
Good News Translation
Get good advice and you will succeed; don't go charging into battle without a plan.
Lexham English Bible
A plan will be established by advice, and with guidance make war.
Literal Translation
Purposes are established in counsel; yea, make war with wise guidance.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thorow councell the thinges that men deuyse go forwarde: & with discrecion ought warres to be taken in honde.
American Standard Version
Every purpose is established by counsel; And by wise guidance make thou war.
Bible in Basic English
Every purpose is put into effect by wise help: and by wise guiding make war.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Every purpose is established by counsel; and with good advice carry on war.
King James Version (1611)
Euery purpose is established by counsell: and with good aduice make warre.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Thorowe counsayle, the thinges that men deuise are made strong: and with good aduise take warre in hande.
English Revised Version
Every purpose is established by counsel: and by wise guidance make thou war,
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thouytis ben maad strong bi counselis; and bateils schulen be tretid bi gouernals.
Update Bible Version
Every purpose is established by counsel; And by wise guidance make war.
Webster's Bible Translation
[Every] purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.
New English Translation
Plans are established by counsel, so make war with guidance.
New King James Version
Plans are established by counsel; By wise counsel wage war.
New Living Translation
Plans succeed through good counsel; don't go to war without wise advice.
New Life Bible
Make plans by listening to what others have to say, and make war by listening to the leading of wise men.
New Revised Standard
Plans are established by taking advice; wage war by following wise guidance.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Plans - by counsel, shalt thou establish, and, with concerted measures, make thou war.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Designs are strengthened by counsels: and wars are to be managed by governments.
Revised Standard Version
Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.
Young's Literal Translation
Purposes by counsel thou dost establish, And with plans make thou war.
THE MESSAGE
Form your purpose by asking for counsel, then carry it out using all the help you can get.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Prepare plans by consultation, And make war by wise guidance.

Contextual Overview

18 Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

purpose: Proverbs 15:22, Proverbs 24:6

and: Proverbs 25:8, Judges 1:1, Judges 1:2, Judges 9:29, Judges 20:7, Judges 20:18, Judges 20:23, Judges 20:26-28, 2 Samuel 2:26, 2 Samuel 2:27, 2 Chronicles 25:17-23, Luke 14:31

Reciprocal: Joshua 7:2 - Go up Joshua 22:13 - sent Judges 18:2 - to spy Judges 19:30 - consider 2 Samuel 2:14 - play before 1 Kings 1:12 - let me 1 Kings 20:22 - strengthen 2 Kings 6:8 - took 2 Kings 14:8 - Come 2 Chronicles 32:3 - took counsel Proverbs 13:10 - with Proverbs 16:12 - for Acts 12:20 - but

Cross-References

Genesis 12:17
And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
Genesis 16:2
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
Genesis 20:7
Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
Genesis 30:2
And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
1 Samuel 1:6
And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.
1 Samuel 5:10
Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[Every] purpose is established by counsel,.... Or "the thought" f of a man, everyone of them, what he has thought to do, formed a scheme of in his mind, and resolved upon, by taking advice of his friends, and especially by asking counsel of God, who gives, wisdom liberally, and upbraids not; he is confirmed in his good designs; and he cheerfully pursues them, and they are ordered and directed to the glory of God, his own good and the good of others; for this can only be understood of wise and good thoughts and purposes;

and with good advice make war; this should not be entered upon rashly, without first considering whether there is a just and lawful cause of it; and without consulting the necessary charge and expense of it; whether there is a sufficiency of men and money to carry it on; and what may probably be the issue of it. It is right in a king to advise with his privy council, or with the chief council of the nation; but, above all, both he and his people should seek advice of the Lord on such an occasion; see Luke 14:31. This may be applied to our spiritual warfare with sin, Satan, and the world; not that it should be any doubt with whether we should engage in such a war; but we should advise with experienced soldiers, and especially with God and his word, what weapons to take, and how to use them; and consider in whose name and strength we are to fight; and inquire and learn the force, methods, and designs of the enemy, and where to guard against them or attack them. Jarchi interprets it of making war with Satan by repentance, prayer, and fasting.

f מחשבות "cogitationes", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Gejerus; "unaquaeque cogitationum", Piscator, Mercerus, Michaelis.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 20:18. With good advice make war, — Perhaps there is not a precept in this whole book so little regarded as this. Most of the wars that are undertaken are wars of injustice, ambition, aggrandizement, and caprice, which can have had no previous good counsel. A minister, who is perhaps neither a good nor a great man, counsels his king to make war; the cabinet must be brought into it, and a sufficient number out of the states of the kingdom gained over to support it. By and by, what was begun through caprice must be maintained through necessity. Places must be created, and offices must be filled with needy dependents, whose interest it may be to protract the war, till they get enough to pay their debts, and secure independence for life. And for these most important ends the blood of the country is spilled, and the treasures of the people exhausted! I have met with a fact precisely of this kind under the reign of Louis XIV.


 
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