Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Proverbs 4:14 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 14. 14Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men”.
The taught path is wide enough to run; the violent path is not to be sampled
This verse is one part of that explanation in Proverbs 4:10–19. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Proverbs 4:10–19
Read Proverbs 4:14 with 4:10–19. Read alone, “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: uses two-part parallelism to place “Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings” beside “and the years of thy life shall be many”; by 4:19, it opens with “The way of the wicked is as darkness” and develops the line through “they know not at what they stumble”. Together the unit concentrates on life, death, safety, and the long direction of choices, violence, predation, conflict, and protection, family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care within “Purpose, parental discourses, and the rival invitations of Wisdom and Folly.”
Why This Verse Appears Here
Proverbs 4:10–19 contrasts with “Receive intergenerational wisdom and acquire her” by carrying “Choose the bright path over the violent path” within the same sustained discourse, admonition, numbered form, or poem. Within that relationship, this verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men”.
What Remains True
Proverbs traces the cumulative direction of choices toward life-giving order or destructive consequence without claiming to explain every death or survival. In Proverbs 4:14, that bounded truth is expressed through “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of…,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Choose the option that protects life, reduces foreseeable harm, preserves access to help, and keeps long-term consequences visible. Proverbs 4:14 names that responsibility through “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of…,” so the response must remain accountable to the person, action, comparison, or consequence in this line.
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 4:10–19 — Choose the bright path over the violent pathSources 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 4:10–19, 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 4:10-4:19
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. 1088-1090, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 4:10–19
Open source ↗