Pro 4:24 | KD | STEP | After this general preface the exhortation now becomes special: 23 Above all other things that are to be guarded, keep thy heart, For out from it life has its issues. 24 Put away from thee perverseness of mouth, And waywardness of lips put far from thee. 25 Thine eyes should look straight forward, And thine eyelids look straight to the end before thee. 26 Make even the path of thy feet, And let all thy ways be correct. 27 Turn not aside to the right and to the left; Remove thy foot from evil. Although משׁמר in itself and in this connection may mean the object to be watchfully avoided ( cavendi ) ( vid ., under ): thus the usage of the language lying before us applies it, yet only as denoting the place of watching or the object observandi ; so that it is not to be thus explained, with Raschi and others: before all from which one has to protect himself ( ab omni re cavenda ), guard thine heart; but: before all that one has to guard ( prae omni re custodienda ), guard it as the most precious of possessions committed to thy trust. The heart, which according to its etymon denotes that which is substantial ( Kernhafte ) in man (cf. Arab. lubb, the kernel of the nut or almond), comes here into view not as the physical, but as the intellectual, and specially the ethical centrum .

‏ Proverbs 4:24

After this general preface the exhortation now becomes special: 23 Above all other things that are to be guarded, keep thy heart, For out from it life has its issues. 24 Put away from thee perverseness of mouth, And waywardness of lips put far from thee. 25 Thine eyes should look straight forward, And thine eyelids look straight to the end before thee. 26 Make even the path of thy feet, And let all thy ways be correct. 27 Turn not aside to the right and to the left; Remove thy foot from evil.

Although משׁמר in itself and in this connection may mean the object to be watchfully avoided (cavendi) (vid., under Pro 2:20): thus the usage of the language lying before us applies it, yet only as denoting the place of watching or the object observandi; so that it is not to be thus explained, with Raschi and others: before all from which one has to protect himself (ab omni re cavenda), guard thine heart; but: before all that one has to guard (prae omni re custodienda), guard it as the most precious of possessions committed to thy trust. The heart, which according to its etymon denotes that which is substantial (Kernhafte) in man (cf. Arab. lubb, the kernel of the nut or almond), comes here into view not as the physical, but as the intellectual, and specially the ethical centrum.