Chapter
Verse

Proverbs 19:27

ESV Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
NIV Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
NASB Stop listening, my son, to discipline, And you will stray from the words of knowledge.
CSB If you stop listening to correction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.
NLT If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you will turn your back on knowledge.
KJV Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
NKJV Cease listening to instruction, my son, And you will stray from the words of knowledge.

What does Proverbs 19:27 mean?

No one ever arrives at a point of "knowing it all," especially when spiritual truth is involved. The search for wisdom and knowledge is rewarding, but never-ending (Proverbs 1:5; 15:14; 18:1). As soon as a person starts relying on themselves, alone, for wisdom, they will begin wandering from the path of truth (Proverbs 4:26; 10:17; 27:17).

Even the apostle Paul recognized the need to keep learning. From a Roman prison he urged Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:13 to visit him and bring him not only a cloak but "also the books, and above all the [copies of Scripture]." The apostle Peter exhorts us in 2 Peter 3:18 to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." If anyone thinks he knows everything he needs to know, he should ponder what happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness. Paul writes, "Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:11–12).
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