Proverbs 16:1

1. The preparations of the heart The weight of criticism is against this reading. There is unquestionably a sense in which the saying, as it stands, is true. But this does not seem to be the meaning here. The sense generally consented to is substantially this: the plans or arrangements of the heart appertain to man, but the utterance of the tongue is from Jehovah. It is somewhat similar to our English saying, “Man proposes, God disposes.” Jehovah is the giver of right words, from which health and life go forth.

But others understand “the answer of the tongue” to mean the answer to the tongue the answer to prayer. Comp. Matthew 10:19-20; Rom 8:26 ; 2 Corinthians 3:5, and verse nine of this chapter.