Proverbs 3:12

3:12 For the Lord disciplines ¹  those he loves,

just as a father ²  disciplines ³  the son in whom he delights.

Proverbs 8:36

8:36 But the one who does not find me ⁴  brings harm ⁵  to himself; ⁶ 

all who hate me ⁷  love death.”

Proverbs 19:18

19:18 Discipline your child, for ⁸  there is hope,

but do not set your heart ⁹  on causing his death. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 22:15

22:15 Folly is bound up ¹¹  in the heart of a child, ¹² 

but the rod of discipline ¹³  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 ¹⁴  him with the rod,

you will deliver him ¹⁵  from death. ¹⁶ 

Proverbs 29:15

29:15 A rod and reproof ¹⁷  impart ¹⁸  wisdom,

but a child who is unrestrained ¹⁹  brings shame ²⁰  to his mother. ²¹ 

Proverbs 29:17

29:17 Discipline your child, and he will give you rest; ²² 

he will bring you ²³  happiness. ²⁴ 

Luke 14:26

14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate ²⁵  his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, ²⁶  he cannot be my disciple.

Hebrews 12:6-8

12:6 “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son he accepts.” ²⁷ 

12:7 Endure your suffering ²⁸  as discipline; ²⁹  God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 12:8 But if you do not experience discipline, ³⁰  something all sons ³¹  have shared in, then you are illegitimate and are not sons.

[3:12]  ¹ tn Heb “chastens.” The verb יָכַח (yakhakh) here means “to chasten; to punish” (HALOT 410 s.v. יכח 1) or “to correct; to rebuke” (BDB 407 s.v. 6). The context suggests some kind of corporeal discipline rather than mere verbal rebuke or cognitive correction. This verse is quoted in Heb 12:5-6 to show that suffering in the service of the Lord is a sign of membership in the covenant community (i.e., sonship).

[3:12]  ² tc MT reads וּכְאָב (ukh’av, “and like a father”) but the LXX reflects the Hiphil verb וְיַכְאִב (vÿyakh’iv, “and scourges every son he receives”). Both readings fit the parallelism; however, it is unnecessary to emend MT which makes perfectly good sense. The fact that the writer of Hebrews quotes this passage from the LXX and it became part of the inspired NT text does not mean that the LXX reflects the original Hebrew reading here.

[3:12]  ³ tn The verb “disciplines” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the parallelism; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[8:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “the one sinning [against] me.” The verb חָטָא (khata’, “to sin”) forms a contrast with “find” in the previous verse, and so has its basic meaning of “failing to find, miss.” So it is talking about the one who misses wisdom, as opposed to the one who finds it.

[8:36]  ⁵ tn The Qal active participle functions verbally here. The word stresses both social and physical harm and violence.

[8:36]  ⁶ tn Heb “his soul.”

[8:36]  ⁷ tn The basic idea of the verb שָׂנֵא (sane’, “to hate”) is that of rejection. Its antonym is also used in the line, “love,” which has the idea of choosing. So not choosing (i.e., hating) wisdom amounts to choosing (i.e., loving) death.

[19:18]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Or “punish” (NIV). The syntax of these two lines suggests a conditional clause (cf. NCV, NRSV).

[23:14]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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.

[29:15]  ¹⁷ 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”).

[29:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gives” (so NAB).

[29:15]  ¹⁹ 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.”

[29:15]  ²⁰ 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.

[29:15]  ²¹ 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).

[29:17]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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.

[14:26]  ²⁵ tn This figurative use operates on a relative scale. God is to be loved more than family or self.

[14:26]  ²⁶ tn Grk “his own soul,” but ψυχή (yuch) is frequently used of one’s physical life. It clearly has that meaning in this context.

[12:6]  ²⁷ sn A quotation from Prov 3:11-12.

[12:7]  ²⁸ tn Grk “endure,” with the object (“your suffering”) understood from the context.

[12:7]  ²⁹ tn Or “in order to become disciplined.”

[12:8]  ³⁰ tn Grk “you are without discipline.”

[12:8]  ³¹ tn Grk “all”; “sons” is implied by the context.