by making ¹  your ear ²  attentive to wisdom, and ³  by turning ⁴  your heart ⁵  to understanding,

biblegateway Pro 2:2

Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding;

listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding;

if you pay close attention to wisdom, and let your mind reach for understanding,

biblegateway Pro 2:2

turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;

bibleoremus Pro 2:2

making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;

giving your attention to wisdom and your mind to understanding,

biblegateway Pro 2:2

So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding;

So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, [and] apply thine heart to understanding;

biblegateway Pro 2:2

by making ¹  your ear ²  attentive to wisdom, and ³  by turning ⁴  your heart ⁵  to understanding,

¹ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct לְהַקְשִׁיב (lÿhaqshiv, “by making attentive”) functions as an epexegetical explanation of how one will receive the instruction.

² sn The word “ear” is a metonymy of cause; the word is used as the instrument of hearing. But in parallelism with “heart” it indicates one aspect of the mental process of hearing and understanding. A “hearing ear” describes an obedient or responsive person (BDB 24 s.v. אֹזֶן 2).

³ tn The conjunction “and” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

⁴ tn The Hiphil imperfect (“by turning”) continues the nuance introduced by the infinitive construct in the first colon (GKC 352 §114.r). The verb נָטָה (natah) normally means “to stretch out” and only occasionally “to turn” or “to incline” one’s heart to something, as is the case here.

⁵ tn Or “mind” (the center of the will, the choice).