Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Proverbs 3:1 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 1. 1My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “My son, forget not my law” against “let thine heart keep my commandments”.
The father's teaching asks for memory that reaches the heart
This verse is one part of that explanation in Proverbs 3:1–4. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Proverbs 3:1–4
Read Proverbs 3:1 with 3:1–4. Read alone, “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: uses contrastive parallelism to place “My son, forget not my law” against “let thine heart keep my commandments”; by 3:4, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man”. Together the unit concentrates on family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care, life, death, safety, and the long direction of choices, generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
Why This Verse Appears Here
Proverbs 3:1–4 forms a reviewed local cluster inside “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.” Its lines concentrate on family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care, life, death, safety, and the long direction of choices, generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, while each sentence proverb retains its own force and the neighboring database unit does not supply its meaning. Within that relationship, this verse uses contrastive parallelism to place “My son, forget not my law” against “let thine heart keep my commandments”.
What Remains True
Family relationships can transmit wisdom and responsibility, but their authority remains accountable to truth, safety, and justice. In Proverbs 3:1, that bounded truth is expressed through “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my…,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Proverbs 3:1–4 — Do not forget loyal teachingSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: Proverbs 3:1–4, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Proverbs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 3:1-3:4
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Proverbs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
Exact location: NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1084-1088, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 3:1–4
Open source ↗