Text -- Proverbs 21:1-2 (NET)

21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord like channels of water; he turns it wherever he wants. 21:2 All of a person’s ways seem right in his own opinion, but the Lord evaluates the motives.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Pro 21:1

¹ sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

² sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

³ tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”

sn The farmer channels irrigation ditches where he wants them, where they will do the most good; so does the Lord with the king. No king is supreme; the Lord rules.

NET Notes: Pro 21:2

¹ tn Heb “in his own eyes.” The term “eyes” is a metonymy for estimation, opinion, evaluation.

² tn Heb “weighs” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “examines”; NCV, TEV “judges.”

³ tn Heb “the hearts.” The term לֵב (lev, “heart”) is used as a metonymy of association for thoughts and motives (BDB 660-61 s.v. 6-7). Even though people think they know themselves, the Lord evaluates motives as well (e.g., Prov 16:2).