Proverbs 4:24-26 New English Translation

²⁴Remove perverse speech^[a] from your mouth;^[b]
keep devious talk far from your lips.^[c]
²⁵Let your eyes look directly^[d] in front of you
and let your gaze^[e] look straight before you.
²⁶Make the path for your feet^[f] level,^[g]
so that^[h] all your ways may be established.^[i]

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Footnotes

Proverbs 4:24 tn Heb “crookedness.” The noun עִקְּשׁוּת (ʿiqq^eshut) refers to what is morally twisted or perverted. Here it refers to things that are said (cf. NAB “dishonest talk”; NRSV “crooked speech”). The term “mouth” functions as a metonymy of cause for perverse speech. Such perverse talking could be subtle or blatant.
Proverbs 4:24 tn Heb “crookedness of mouth.”
Proverbs 4:24 tn Heb “deviousness of lips put far from you.”
Proverbs 4:25 tn The jussives in this verse are both Hiphil, the first from the verb “to gaze; to look intently [or, carefully],” (נָבַט, navat) and the second from the verb “to be smooth, straight” (יָשָׁר, yashar).
Proverbs 4:25 tn Heb “your eyelids.” The term “eyelids” is often a poetic synonym for “eye” (it is a metonymy of adjunct, something connected with the eye put for the eye that sees); it may intensify the idea as one might squint to gain a clearer look.
Proverbs 4:26 tn Heb “path of your foot.”
Proverbs 4:26 sn The verb is a denominative Piel from the word פֶּלֶס (peles), “balance; scale.” In addition to telling the disciple to keep focused on a righteous life, the sage tells him to keep his path level, which is figurative for living the righteous life.
Proverbs 4:26 tn Following an imperative, a vav plus imperfect verb can depict purpose or result.
Proverbs 4:26 tn The Niphal jussive from כּוּן (kun, “to be fixed; to be established; to be steadfast”) continues the idiom of walking and ways for the moral sense in life.

New English Translation (NET)