The interpretation timeline

Prov 16:3

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Prov 16:3 · Douay-Rheims

“Lay open thy works to the Lord: and thy thoughts shall be directed.”

Patristic before A.D. 750

420

A.D.

Jerome Patristic

c. A.D. 347–420

“We are commanded to show him our ways and make our ways to him, which are made straight, not by our own efforts but by his help and mercy. Whence it is written, "Make straight your way in my sight" (or as other copies have it, "make straight my way in your sight"), so that what is straight to him may also appear straight to me. Solomon also says, "Lay open your works to the Lord, and your thoughts shall be directed." For our thoughts are directed then, and only then, when we lay open to the Lord, as to a firm and very stable rock, everything that we do and impute everything to him.”

Source

315 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet

735

A.D.

Bede Patristic

A.D. 673–735

“Commit your works to the Lord, etc. Indeed, we reveal our works to the Lord when we remember Him in all we do, knowing that nothing is hidden from Him, and we seek His help in all things. And when we do this devoutly, it happens that not only the same works, but even our inner thoughts proceed under His direction.”

Source

Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.