Proverbs 21:1

The king’s heart ¹  is in the hand ²  of the Lord like channels of water; ³  he turns it wherever he wants.

Ezr 7:27,28; Ne 1:11; Ne 2:4; Ps 74:15; Ps 93:4; Ps 105:25; Ps 106:46; Ps 114:3,5; Pr 16:1,9; Pr 20:24; Isa 43:19; Isa 44:27; Da 4:35; Ac 7:10; Re 16:4,12

¹ sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

² sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

³ tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”

sn The farmer channels irrigation ditches where he wants them, where they will do the most good; so does the Lord with the king. No king is supreme; the Lord rules.