Proverbs 20:5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Counsel in the heart of man Either, 1st, Ability to give counsel; or, 2d, The design or purpose of doing something of importance; for the word עצה, here rendered counsel, is frequently used in both senses, but the latter seems most proper here; it is like deep water Is there in great abundance, or is secret and hard to be discovered; but a man of understanding will draw it out By prudent questions and discourses, and a diligent observation of his words and actions. In other words, “Though the designs and intentions of another man, especially one who hath a deep understanding, are as hard to be found out as waters which lie in the secret caverns of the earth; yet there are persons of such penetration, that they will find means to discover them and draw them out.” “There are six ways,” says Lord Bacon, in his Advancement of Learning, lib. 8. cap. 2, “whereby the knowledge of men may be drawn out and disclosed; by their faces and countenances, by words, by deeds, by their nature, by their ends, and by the relations of others.”