1 Samuel 2:23-25

2:23 He said to them, “Why do you behave in this way? For I hear about these evil things from all these ¹  people. 2:24 This ought not to be, ²  my sons! For the report that I hear circulating among the Lord’s people is not good. 2:25 If a man sins against a man, one may appeal to God on his behalf. But if a man sins against the Lord, who then will intercede for him?” But Eli’s sons ³  would not listen to their father, for the Lord had decided ⁴  to kill them.

1 Samuel 2:1

Hannah Exalts the Lord in Prayer

2:1 Hannah prayed, ⁵ 

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;

my horn ⁶  is exalted high because of the Lord.

I loudly denounce ⁷  my enemies,

for I am happy that you delivered me. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 1:6

1:6 Her rival wife used to upset her and make her worry, ⁹  for the Lord had not enabled her to have children.

Proverbs 19:18

19:18 Discipline your child, for ¹⁰  there is hope,

but do not set your heart ¹¹  on causing his death. ¹² 

Proverbs 23:13-14

23:13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;

even if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

23:14 If you strike ¹³  him with the rod,

you will deliver him ¹⁴  from death. ¹⁵ 

Proverbs 29:15

29:15 A rod and reproof ¹⁶  impart ¹⁷  wisdom,

but a child who is unrestrained ¹⁸  brings shame ¹⁹  to his mother. ²⁰ 

Matthew 10:37

10:37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

¹ tc For “these” the LXX has “of the Lord” (κυρίου, kuriou), perhaps through the influence of the final phrase of v. 24 (“the people of the Lord”). Somewhat less likely is the view that the MT reading is due to a distorted dittography of the first word of v. 24. The Vulgate lacks the word.

² tn Heb “no.”

³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (Eli’s sons) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “desired.”

⁵ tn Heb “prayed and said.” This is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation.

⁶ sn Horns of animals have always functioned as both offensive and defensive weapons for them. As a figure of speech the horn is therefore often used in the Bible as a symbol of human strength (see also in v. 10). The allusion in v. 1 to the horn being lifted high suggests a picture of an animal elevating its head in a display of strength or virility.

⁷ tn Heb “my mouth opens wide against.”

⁸ tn Heb “for I rejoice in your deliverance.”

⁹ tn Heb “and her rival wife grieved her, even [with] grief so as to worry her.”

¹⁰ tn The translation understands כִּי (ki) as causal. Some prefer to take כִּי as temporal and translate, “while there is hope” (so KJV, NASB, NCV, NRSV, NLT), meaning that discipline should be administered when the child is young and easily guided. In the causal reading of כִּי, the idea seems to be that children should be disciplined because change is possible due to their youth and the fact that they are not set in their ways.

¹¹ tn The expression “do not lift up your soul/life” to his death may mean (1) “do not set your heart” on his death (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), or it may mean (2) “do not be a willing partner” (cf. NIV). The parent is to discipline a child, but he is not to take it to the extreme and destroy or kill the child.

¹² tn The Hiphil infinitive construct הֲמִיתוֹ (h^amito) means “taking it to heart” in this line. The traditional rendering was “and let not your soul spare for his crying.” This involved a different reading than “causing his death” (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 206-7).

¹³ tn Or “punish” (NIV). The syntax of these two lines suggests a conditional clause (cf. NCV, NRSV).

¹⁴ tn Heb “his soul.” The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= soul) for the whole (= person); see BDB 660 s.v. 4.

¹⁵ tn The term שְׁאוֹל (shÿ’ol, “Sheol”) in this context probably means “death” (so NIV, NCV, NLT) and not the realm of the departed (wicked) spirits (cf. NAB “the nether world”). In the wisdom of other lands, Ahiqar 6:82 says, “If I strike you, my son, you will not die.” The idea is that discipline helps the child to a full life; if the child dies prematurely, it would be more than likely a consequence of not being trained by discipline. In the book of Proverbs the “death” mentioned here could be social as well as physical.

¹⁶ tn The word “rod” is a metonymy of cause, in which the instrument being used to discipline is mentioned in place of the process of disciplining someone. So the expression refers to the process of discipline that is designed to correct someone. Some understand the words “rod and reproof” to form a hendiadys, meaning “a correcting [or, reproving] rod” (cf. NAB, NIV “the rod of correction”).

¹⁷ tn Heb “gives” (so NAB).

¹⁸ tn The form is a Pual participle; the form means “to let loose” (from the meaning “to send”; cf. KJV, NIV “left to himself”), and so in this context “unrestrained.”

¹⁹ sn The Hebrew participle translated “brings shame” is a metonymy of effect; the cause is the unruly and foolish things that an unrestrained child will do.

²⁰ sn The focus on the mother is probably a rhetorical variation for the “parent” (e.g., 17:21; 23:24-25) and is not meant to assume that only the mother will do the training and endure the shame for a case like this (e.g., 13:24; 23:13).