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20 My child,[a] guard the commands of your father
and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:20 tn The text again has “my son.” In this passage perhaps “son” would be the most fitting because of the warning against the adulterous woman. However, since even in this particular folly the temptation works both ways, the general address to either young men or women is retained. Similar warnings would apply to daughters to be warned of smooth-talking, seductive men.

20 
My son, be guided by your father’s [God-given] commandment (instruction)
And do not [a]reject the teaching of your mother;(A)

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:20 Lit forsake.

22 Listen to your father who gave you life,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23 Acquire[a] truth and do not sell it—
wisdom, and discipline, and understanding.
24 The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly;[b]
whoever fathers a wise child[c] will have joy in him.
25 May your father and your mother have joy;
may she who bore you rejoice.[d]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:23 tn Heb “buy” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT); CEV “Invest in truth.”sn The sixteenth saying is an instruction to buy/acquire the kind of life that pleases God and brings joy to parents. “Getting truth” would mean getting training in the truth, and getting wisdom and understanding would mean developing the perception and practical knowledge of the truth.
  2. Proverbs 23:24 tc The Qere reading has the imperfect יָגִיל (yagil) with the cognate accusative גִּיל (gil) which intensifies the meaning and the specific future of this verb.
  3. Proverbs 23:24 tn The term “child” is supplied for the masculine singular adjective here.
  4. Proverbs 23:25 tn The form תָגֵל (tagel) is clearly a short form and therefore a jussive (“may she…rejoice”); if this second verb is a jussive, then the parallel יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) should be a jussive also (“may your father and your mother have joy”).

22 
Listen to your father, who sired you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old.
23 
[a]Buy truth, and do not sell it;
Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.

24 
The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who sires a wise child will have joy in him.
25 
Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her who gave birth to you rejoice [in your wise and godly choices].

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:23 The ancient rabbis routinely assumed “truth” to refer to the Torah (Law), and they interpreted the first part of this command to mean that a student should pay a teacher to teach him the Torah if he can find no one to teach him for free. As for the second part, they said that if the student had to pay to learn, he should not view this as grounds to charge for teaching others, but should teach the Torah for free.

15 A rod and reproof[a] impart[b] wisdom,
but a child who is unrestrained[c] brings shame to[d] his mother.[e]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 29:15 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”).
  2. Proverbs 29:15 tn Heb “gives” (so NAB).
  3. Proverbs 29:15 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.”
  4. Proverbs 29:15 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.
  5. Proverbs 29:15 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).

15 
The rod and reproof (godly instruction) give wisdom,
But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.

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