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Proverbs 23:12-14
New Catholic Bible
Proverbs 23:12-14
New Catholic Bible
Direct Your Heart along the Right Path[a]
12 Apply your heart to instruction
and your ears to words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.
14 Rather, if you beat him with a rod,
you will save him from the netherworld.[b]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 23:12 A father here speaks to his son in order to counsel him, for wisdom is tradition, an apprenticeship in how to behave, the acceptance of an ideal that has shown its value. The conceptions of education set forth undoubtedly deserve to be reviewed and adapted in accordance with the evolution of cultures. But doesn’t the joy of parents consist in knowing that they are understood when they bear witness from the best of themselves!
- Proverbs 23:14 The ancients thought that in order to give instruction one has to be severe (see Prov 19:18). In this ancient conception, a good education was the guarantee of good behavior. Hence, it was a buffer against the punishment of God reserved for the wicked and against the punishment of the netherworld, i.e., death.
