Proverbs 20:5

Just as it is difficult to bring up water from a deep well, it is difficult to know what people are thinking, but someone who has good sense/insight will be able to find out what people are thinking.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.

In Context

4If a lazy man does not plow his fields at the right/proper time, he will look for crops at harvest time, but there will be nothing there.

6Many people proclaim that they can be trusted to do what they say that they will do, but it is very difficult to find [RHQ] someone who can really be trusted.

Read all of Proverbs 20

Cross References

Proverbs 18:4What wise people say is like a deep ocean that you can never get to the bottom of [MET], and it refreshes us like water from a rapidly flowing stream.

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 20:5

4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. See here the evil of slothfulness and the love of ease. 1. It keeps men from the most necessary business, from ploughing and sowing when the season is: The sluggard has ground to occupy, and has ability for it; he can plough, but he will not; some excuse or other he has to shift it off, but the true reason is that it is cold weather. Though ploughing time is not in the depth of winter, it is in the borders of… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Proverbs 20:5