Deuteronomy 8:5

8:5 Be keenly aware that just as a parent disciplines his child, ¹  the Lord your God disciplines you.

Deuteronomy 8:2

8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ²  has brought you these forty years through the desert ³  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

Deuteronomy 7:14

7:14 You will be blessed beyond all peoples; there will be no barrenness ⁴  among you or your livestock.

Proverbs 13:24

13:24 The one who spares his rod ⁵  hates ⁶  his child, ⁷ 

but the one who loves his child ⁸  is diligent ⁹  in disciplining ¹⁰  him.

Proverbs 19:18

19:18 Discipline your child, for ¹¹  there is hope,

but do not set your heart ¹²  on causing his death. ¹³ 

Proverbs 22:15

22:15 Folly is bound up ¹⁴  in the heart of a child, ¹⁵ 

but the rod of discipline ¹⁶  will drive it far from him.

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 ¹⁷  him with the rod,

you will deliver him ¹⁸  from death. ¹⁹ 

Proverbs 29:17

29:17 Discipline your child, and he will give you rest; ²⁰ 

he will bring you ²¹  happiness. ²² 

Hebrews 12:9-11

12:9 Besides, we have experienced discipline from ²³  our earthly fathers ²⁴  and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of spirits and receive life? ²⁵  12:10 For they disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness. 12:11 Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. ²⁶  But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness ²⁷  for those trained by it.

[8:5]  ¹ tn Heb “just as a man disciplines his son.” The Hebrew text reflects the patriarchal idiom of the culture.

[8:2]  ² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:2]  ³ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.

[7:14]  ⁴ sn One of the ironies about the promises to the patriarchs concerning offspring was the characteristic barrenness of the wives of the men to whom these pledges were made (cf. Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31). Their affliction is in each case described by the very Hebrew word used here (עֲקָרָה, ’aqarah), an affliction that will no longer prevail in Canaan.

[13:24]  ⁵ sn R. N. Whybray cites an Egyptian proverb that says that “boys have their ears on their backsides; they listen when they are beaten” (Proverbs [CBC], 80). Cf. Prov 4:3-4, 10-11; Eph 6:4; Heb 12:5-11.

[13:24]  ⁶ sn The importance of parental disciplining is stressed by the verbs “hate” and “love.” “Hating” a child in this sense means in essence abandoning or rejecting him; “loving” a child means embracing and caring for him. Failure to discipline a child is tantamount to hating him – not caring about his character.

[13:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “his son.”

[13:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “him”; the referent (his child) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “seeks him.” The verb שָׁחַר (shahar, “to be diligent; to do something early”; BDB 1007 s.v.) could mean “to be diligent to discipline,” or “to be early or prompt in disciplining.” See G. R. Driver, “Hebrew Notes on Prophets and Proverbs,” JTS 41 (1940): 170.

[13:24]  ¹⁰ tn The noun מוּסָר (musar, “discipline”) functions as an adverbial accusative of reference: “he is diligent in reference to discipline.”

[19:18]  ¹¹ 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.

[19:18]  ¹² 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.

[19:18]  ¹³ 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).

[22:15]  ¹⁴ sn The passive participle is figurative (implied comparison with “binding”); it means that folly forms part of a child’s nature (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 238).

[22:15]  ¹⁵ tn The “heart of a child” (לֶב־נָעַר, lev-na’ar) refers here to the natural inclination of a child to foolishness. The younger child is meant in this context, but the word can include youth. R. N. Whybray suggests that this idea might be described as a doctrine of “original folly” (Proverbs [CBC], 125). Cf. TEV “Children just naturally do silly, careless things.”

[22:15]  ¹⁶ tn The word “rod” is a metonymy of adjunct; it represents physical chastening for direction or punishment, to suppress folly and develop potential. The genitive (“discipline”) may be taken as an attributive genitive (“a chastening rod”) or an objective genitive, (“a rod [= punishment] that brings about correction/discipline”).

[23:14]  ¹⁷ tn Or “punish” (NIV). The syntax of these two lines suggests a conditional clause (cf. NCV, NRSV).

[23:14]  ¹⁸ 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.

[23:14]  ¹⁹ 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.

[29:17]  ²⁰ tn The verb, a Hiphil imperfect with a suffix, could be subordinated to the preceding imperative to form a purpose clause (indirect volitive classification): “that he may give you rest.” The same then could apply to the second part of the verse.

[29:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “your soul.” The noun נַפְשֶׁךָ (nafshekha, “your soul”) is a synecdoche of part (= inner soul) for the whole person (= you); see, e.g., Isa 43:4; 51:23; BDB 600 s.v. 4.a.2.

[29:17]  ²² sn The parallelism of this verse is synthetic; the second half adds the idea of “delight/pleasure” to that of “rest.” So a disciplined child will both relieve anxiety (“give…rest”) and bring happiness to the parents.

[12:9]  ²³ tn Grk “we had our earthly fathers as discipliners.”

[12:9]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the fathers of our flesh.” In Hebrews, “flesh” is a characteristic way of speaking about outward, physical, earthly life (cf. Heb 5:7; 9:10, 13), as opposed to the inward or spiritual dimensions of life.

[12:9]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and live.”

[12:11]  ²⁶ tn Grk “all discipline at the time does not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow.”

[12:11]  ²⁷ tn Grk “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”