Proverbs 7:7

7:7 and I saw among the naive –

I discerned among the youths ¹  –

a young man ²  who lacked wisdom. ³ 

Proverbs 22:15

22:15 Folly is bound up ⁴  in the heart of a child, ⁵ 

but the rod of discipline ⁶  will drive it far from him.

Proverbs 29:15

29:15 A rod and reproof ⁷  impart ⁸  wisdom,

but a child who is unrestrained ⁹  brings shame ¹⁰  to his mother. ¹¹ 

[7:7]  ¹ tn Heb “sons.”

[7:7]  ² tn Heb “lad” or “youth.”

[7:7]  ³ tn Heb “heart.”

[22:15]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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”).

[29:15]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “gives” (so NAB).

[29:15]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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).