Proverbs Chapter 21 verse 1 Holy Bible
The king's heart is in the hand of Jehovah as the watercourses: He turneth it whithersoever he will.
read chapter 21 in ASV
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.
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The king's heart in the hand of Jehovah is [as] brooks of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
read chapter 21 in DARBY
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
read chapter 21 in KJV
read chapter 21 in WBT
The king's heart is in Yahweh's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.
read chapter 21 in WEB
Rivulets of waters `is' the heart of a king in the hand of Jehovah, Wherever He pleaseth He inclineth it.
read chapter 21 in YLT
Proverbs 21 : 1 Bible Verse Songs
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 1. - The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. We are to think of the little channels used for irrigation. As these are altogether under the gardener's control, so the heart of the king, who might seem to have no superior, is directed by God. He turneth it whithersoever he will. By hidden influences and providential arrangements God disposes the monarch to order his government so as to carry out his designs, to spread around joy and plenty. The system of irrigation signified in this passage is still to be seen in Eastern lands. "Flower beds and gardens of herbs are always made at a little lower level than the surrounding ground, and are divided into small squares, a slight edging of earth banking the whole round on each side. Water is then let in, and floods the entire surface till the soil is thoroughly saturated; after which the moisture is turned off to another bed, by simply closing the opening in the one under water, by a turn of the bare foot of the gardener, and making another in the same way with the foot, in the next bed, and thus the whole garden is in due course watered .... Only, in this case, the hand is supposed to make the gap in the clay bank of the streamlet, and divert the current" (Geikie, 'Holy Land and Bible,' 1:9). So in Virgil we find ('Ecl.,' 3:111) - "Claudite jam rivos, pueri; sat prata biberunt." "Now close the cuts; enough the meads have drunk."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersXXI.(1) As the rivers of water.--Channels for irrigation (comp. Psalm 1:3). He turns the heart of the king, whose favour is as the latter rain (Proverbs 16:15) and dew (Proverbs 19:12), now towards one suppliant and now towards another, as He thinks fit, for "the hearts of kings are in His rule and governance."
