Deuteronomy 6:7

6:7 and you must teach ¹  them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, ²  as you lie down, and as you get up.

Exodus 12:26

12:26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ³  –

Exodus 13:14

13:14 ⁴ In the future, ⁵  when your son asks you ⁶  ‘What is this?’ ⁷  you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand ⁸  the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery. ⁹ 

Joshua 4:6-7

4:6 The stones ¹⁰  will be a reminder to you. ¹¹  When your children ask someday, ‘Why are these stones important to you?’ 4:7 tell them how the water of the Jordan stopped flowing ¹²  before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the water of the Jordan stopped flowing. ¹³  These stones will be a lasting memorial for the Israelites.”

Joshua 4:21-24

4:21 He told the Israelites, “When your children someday ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones represent?’ ¹⁴  4:22 explain ¹⁵  to your children, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan River ¹⁶  on dry ground.’ 4:23 For the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan before you while you crossed over. It was just like when the Lord your God dried up the Red Sea before us while we crossed it. ¹⁷  4:24 He has done this so ¹⁸  all the nations ¹⁹  of the earth might recognize the Lord’s power ²⁰  and so you might always obey ²¹  the Lord your God.”

Proverbs 22:6

22:6 Train ²²  a child ²³  in the way that he should go, ²⁴ 

and when he is old he will not turn from it. ²⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “repeat” (so NLT). If from the root I שָׁנַן (shanan), the verb means essentially to “engrave,” that is, “to teach incisively” (Piel); note NAB “Drill them into your children.” Cf. BDB 1041-42 s.v.

² tn Or “as you are away on a journey” (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT); NAB “at home and abroad.”

³ tn Heb “what is this service to you?”

⁴ sn As with v. 8, the Law now requires that the children be instructed on the meaning of this observance. It is a memorial of the deliverance from bondage and the killing of the firstborn in Egypt.

⁵ tn Heb “tomorrow.”

⁶ tn Heb “and it will be when your son will ask you.”

⁷ tn The question is cryptic; it simply says, “What is this?” but certainly refers to the custom just mentioned. It asks, “What does this mean?” or “Why do we do this?”

⁸ tn The expression is “with strength of hand,” making “hand” the genitive of specification. In translation “strength” becomes the modifier, because “hand” specifies where the strength was. But of course the whole expression is anthropomorphic for the power of God.

⁹ tn Heb “house of slaves.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “that this may be”; the referent of “this” (the twelve stones) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Heb “in order that this might be a sign among you.”

¹² tn Heb “were cut off from before.”

¹³ tn Heb “how the waters descending from above stood still.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “What are these stones?”

¹⁵ tn Heb “make known.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “crossed this Jordan”; the word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied to clarify the meaning.

¹⁷ tn Heb “just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea when he dried [it] up before us while we crossed over.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “in order that.”

¹⁹ tn Or “peoples.”

²⁰ tn Heb “know the hand of the Lord that it is strong.”

²¹ tn Heb “fear.”

²² tn The verb חָנַךְ (khanakh) means “to train up; to dedicate” (BDB 335 s.v.; HALOT 334 s.v. חנך). The verb is used elsewhere to refer to dedicating a house (Deut 20:5; 1 Kgs 8:63; 2 Chr 7:5). The related noun חֲנֻכָה (khanukhah) means “dedication; consecration” (BDB 335 s.v.; HALOT 334 s.v.), and is used in reference to the dedication or consecration of altars (Num 7:10; 2 Chr 7:9), the temple (Ps 30:1), and town walls (Neh 12:27). The related adjective חָנִיךְ (khanikh) describes “trained, tried, experienced” men (BDB 335 s.v.; Gen 14:14). In the related cognate languages the verb has similar meanings: Aramaic “to train,” Ethiopic “to initiate,” and Arabic IV “to learn; to make experienced” (HALOT 334 s.v.). This proverb pictures a child who is dedicated by parents to the Lord and morally trained to follow him. On the other hand, a popular expositional approach suggests that it means “to motivate.” This view is based on a cognate Arabic root II which (among many other things) refers to the practice of rubbing the palate of a newborn child with date juice or olive oil to motivate the child to suck. While this makes an interesting sermon illustration, it is highly unlikely that this concept was behind this Hebrew verb. The Arabic meaning is late and secondary – the Arabic term did not have this meaning until nearly a millennium after this proverb was written.

²³ tn The term נַעַר (na’ar) is traditionally translated “child” here (so almost all English versions), but might mean “youth.” The noun can refer to a broad range of ages (see BDB 654-55 s.v.; HALOT 707 s.v.): infant (Exod 2:6), weaned child (1 Sam 1:24), young child (Jer 1:6), lad (Gen 22:12), adolescent (Gen 37:2), or young man of marriageable age (Gen 34:19). The context focuses on the child’s young, formative years. The Talmud says this would be up to the age of twenty-four.

²⁴ tn The expression in Hebrew is עַל־פִּי דַּרְכּוֹ (’al-pi darko), which can be rendered “according to his way”; NEB “Start a boy on the right road.” The expression “his way” is “the way he should go”; it reflects the point the book of Proverbs is making that there is a standard of life to which he must attain. Saadia, a Jewish scholar who lived a.d. 882-942, first suggested that this could mean the child should be trained according to his inclination or bent of mind. This may have some merit in practice, but it is not likely what the proverb had in mind. In the book of Proverbs there are only two ways that a person can go, the way of the wise or righteousness, and the way of the fool. One takes training, and the other does not. Ralbag, in fact, offered a satirical interpretation: “Train a child according to his evil inclinations (let him have his will) and he will continue in his evil way throughout life” (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 234). C. H. Toy says the expression means “in accordance with the manner of life to which he is destined (Proverbs [ICC], 415). W. McKane says, “There is only one right way – the way of life – and the educational discipline which directs young men along this way is uniform” (Proverbs [OTL], 564). This phrase does not describe the concept perpetuated by a modern psychological interpretation of the verse: Train a child according to his personality trait.

²⁵ sn The expected consequence of such training is that it will last throughout life. The sages were confident of the character-forming quality of their training. However, proverbs are not universal truths. One can anticipate positive results from careful child-training – but there may be an occasional exception.