Châm Ngôn 21:1
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
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Study Note
The observation 'the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will' applies irrigation imagery — water channels redirected by the farmer's hand — to the most significant form of human authority, royal decision-making. The verse stands at the beginning of a cluster of royal proverbs (21:1-2) that consistently subordinate royal power to divine scrutiny, a wisdom-tradition counterweight to royal ideology's claims of autonomous divine mandate. The hydraulic metaphor implies not that the king is coerced but that his free decisions are mysteriously directed by a higher sovereignty — a model of concursive divine action in human affairs. Ezra 1:1 ('the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus') and Isaiah 45:1-4 ('I have called thee by thy name... though thou hast not known me') provide narrative examples of this principle operating in history.
Bản dịch khác
The king’s heart is in the hand of Jehovah as the watercourses: He turneth it whithersoever he will.
Rivulets of waters <FI>is<Fi> the heart of a king in the hand of Jehovah, Wherever He pleaseth He inclineth it.
The king's heart in the hands of the Lord is like the water streams, and by him it is turned in any direction at his pleasure.
Tham chiếu chéo
That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even …
And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, …
And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. And …
Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, …
And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them joyful, and turned …
And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king …
What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?
The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.