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Selected Verse: Proverbs 4:1 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Pr 4:1 |
King James |
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
To an earnest call for attention to his teachings, the writer adds a commendation of wisdom, preceded and enforced by the counsels of his father and teacher. To this he adds a caution (against the devices of the wicked), and a series of exhortations to docility, integrity, and uprightness. (Pro. 4:1-27)
(Compare Pro 1:8).
to know--in order to know.
doctrine--the matter of learning (Pro 1:5), such as he had received (Lam 3:1). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
| The words "ye children" indicate as usual a new section returning, after the break of Pro 3:27-35, to the old strain of fatherly counsel. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
He now confirms and explains the command to duty which he has placed at the beginning of the whole (Pro 1:8). This he does by his own example, for he relates from the history of his own youth, to the circle of disciples by whom he sees himself surrounded, what good doctrine his parents had taught him regarding the way of life:
1 Hear, ye sons, the instruction of a father,
And attend that ye may gain understanding;
2 For I give to you good doctrine,
Forsake not my direction!
3 For I was a son to my father,
A tender and only (son) in the sight of my mother.
4 And he instructed me, and said to me:
"Let thine heart hold fast my words:
Observe my commandments and live!"
That בּנים in the address comes here into the place of בּני, hitherto used, externally denotes that בני in the progress of these discourses finds another application: the poet himself is so addressed by his father. Intentionally he does not say אביכם (cf. Pro 1:8): he does not mean the father of each individual among those addressed, but himself, who is a father in his relation to them as his disciples; and as he manifests towards them fatherly love, so also he can lay claim to paternal authority over them. לדעת is rightly vocalized, not לדעת. The words do not give the object of attention, but the design, the aim. The combination of ideas in דּעת בּינה (cf. Pro 1:2), which appears to us singular, loses its strangeness when we remember that דעת means, according to its etymon, deposition or reception into the conscience and life. Regarding לקח, apprehension, reception, lesson = doctrine, vid., Pro 1:5. נתתּי is the perf., which denotes as fixed and finished what is just now being done, Gesenius, 126, 4. עזב is here synonym of נטשׁ, Pro 1:8, and the contrary of שׁמר, Pro 28:4. The relative factum in the perfect, designating the circumstances under which the event happened, regularly precedes the chief factum ויּרני; see under Gen 1:2. Superficially understood, the expression 3a would be a platitude; the author means that the natural legal relation was also confirming itself as a moral one. It was a relation of many-sided love, according to 3a: he was esteemed of his mother - לפני, used of the reflex in the judgment, Gen 10:9, and of loving care, Gen 17:18, means this - as a tender child, and therefore tenderly to be protected (רך as Gen 33:13), and as an only child, whether he were so in reality, or was only loved as if he were so. יחיד (Aq., Sym., Theod., μονογενής) may with reference to number also mean unice dilectus (lxx ἀγαπώμενος); cf. Gen 22:2, יחידך (where the lxx translate τὸν ἀγαπητόν, without therefore having ידידך before them). לפני is maintained by all the versions; לבני is not a variant.
(Note: In some editions לבני is noted as Kerı̂ to לפני, but erroneously and contrary to the express evidence of the Masora, which affirms that there are two passages in which we ought to read not לפני, but לבני, viz., Psa 80:3 and Pro 4:3.)
The instruction of the father begins with the jussive, which is pointed יתמך־
(Note: The writing of -יתמך with the grave Metheg (Gaja) and Kametz-Chatuph (ǒ) is that of Ben Asher; on the other hand, יתמך־ with Cholem (ō) and the permanent Metheg is that of Ben Naphtali; vid., Michlol 21a [under the verbal form 25], 30.)
to distinguish it from יתמך־ on account of the ǒ. The lxx has incorrectly ἐρειδέτω, as if the word were יסמך; Symmachus has correctly κατεχέτω. The imper. וחיה is, as Pro 7:2; Gen 20:7, more than ותחיה; the teacher seeks, along with the means, at the same time their object: Observe my commandments, and so become a partaker of life! The Syriac, however, adds תּורתיו כּאישׁון עיניך and my instruction as the apple of thine eye, a clause borrowed from Pro 7:2. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| A father - Of me, who have paternal authority over you and affection for you. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Hear, ye children - Come, my pupils, and hear how a father instructed his child. Such as I received from my father I give to you, and they were the teachings of a wise and affectionate parent to his only son, a peculiar object of his regards, and also those of a fond mother.
He introduces the subject thus, to show that the teaching he received, and which he was about to give them, was the most excellent of its kind. By this he ensured their attention, and made his way to their heart. Teaching by precept is good; teaching by example is better; but teaching both by precept and example is best of all. |
1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
27 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
28 Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
29 Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.
30 Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.
31 Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.
32 For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.
33 The curse of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.
34 Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
35 The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
3 For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
13 And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.
18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!
9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
4 They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.
8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: