Proverbs 1:8

1:7-9 Fools are persons who have no true wisdom, who follow their own devices, without regard to reason, or reverence for God. Children are reasonable creatures, and when we tell them what they must do, we must tell them why. But they are corrupt and wilful, therefore with the instruction there is need of a law. Let Divine truths and commands be to us most honourable; let us value them, and then they shall be so to us.

Proverbs 1:8-9 . My son, &c. — He speaks to his scholars with paternal authority and affection, to render them more attentive and obedient. Teachers among the Hebrews were commonly called fathers, and their scholars their sons. Hear the instruction of thy father — His good and wholesome counsels; and forsake not the law of thy mother — Those pious instructions which thy mother instilled into thee in thy tender years. This he adds, because children, when grown up, are very prone to slight their mothers’ advice, because of the infirmity of their sex, and because they have not that dependance upon, and expectation from their mothers, which they have from their fathers. They shall be an ornament, &c. — This will make thee amiable and honourable in the sight of God and of men, whereas the forsaking of those good counsels will make thee contemptible.

8 . instruction ] or discipline , as in Proverbs 1:2-3; Proverbs 1:7 . law ] or teaching R.V. marg. θεσμοὺς , LXX. First Address. Chap. Proverbs 1:8-19 Proverbs 1:8-9 . In these two verses the writer passes to direct appeal. The form of appeal, My son , which is continually repeated throughout these opening chapters, strikes the key-note of the strain in which all the succeeding exhortations and counsels are cast. It indicates not only the fatherly relation which the Teacher assumes towards the young and inexperienced whom he has undertaken to instruct, but also the true source and authority of the teaching he will give them. The Law, though not clothed, as we have seen ( Introd . pp. 12, 13) in this Book in its Jewish garb, is recognised in its eternal principles. “The instruction of the father,” and “the law of the mother” are to be accepted with childlike submission and unquestioning obedience, and will lend grace and dignity to the life and character, because and in so far as they are the instruction and the law of God Himself, the Universal Father, and because parents are His vicegerents in the education of their children (comp. Proverbs 6:20-21 ).

And every true teacher is, in measure and degree, His and their deputy and representative. (See Deuteronomy 4:9 ; Deuteronomy 6:7 ; Deuteronomy 11:19 ; and compare the place of the 5th commandment in the Decalogue, as the link or hinge between the 1st and 2nd tables of the Law, and the extended obligation of that commandment to “governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters.”)

My son; he speaks to his scholars with paternal authority and affection, to make them more attentive and obedient. Teachers among the Hebrews and others were commonly called fathers, and their scholars their sons. The instruction of thy father; his good and wholesome counsels, but not such as are contrary to God’s law, Proverbs 19:27 . The law of thy mother; those pious instructions which thy mother instilled into thee in thy tender years. See Proverbs 31:1 2 Timothy 1:5 3:14,15 . This he adds, because children, when grown up, are very prone to slight their mother’s advice, because of the infirmity of their sex, and because they have not that dependence upon and expectation from their mothers which they have from their fathers.

My son, hear the instruction of thy {g} father, and forsake not the law of thy {h} mother: (g) He speaks this in the Name of God, who is the universal Father of all creatures, or in the name of the pastor of the Church, who is as a father. (h) That is, of the Church, in which the faithful are begotten by the incorruptible seed of God's word.

The beginning of wisdom is found in the temper of reverence and awe. The fear of the finite in the presence of the Infinite, of the sinful in the presence of the Holy (compare Job 42:5-6 ), this for the Israelite was the starting-point of all true wisdom. In the Book of Job 28:28 it appears as an oracle accompanied by the noblest poetry. In Psalm 111:10 it comes as the choral close of a temple hymn. Here it is the watchword of a true ethical education. This fear has no torment, and is compatible with child-like love. But this and not love is the "beginning of wisdom." Through successive stages and by the discipline of life, love blends with it and makes it perfect.

Verses 8-19. - 1. First admonitory discourse. Warning against enticements to robbery and bloodshed. Verse 8. - My son, hear the instruction of thy father . The transition in this verse from what may be regarded as filial obedience towards God to filial obedience towards parents is suggestive of the moral Law. The same admonition, in a slightly altered form, occurs again in ch. 6, "My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother" (cf. also Proverbs 4:1 ). My son ; בְּנִבי ( b'ni ) from בֵּן ( ben ), "a son." The form of address here adopted was that in common use by teachers towards their pupils, and marks that superintending, loving, and fatherly care and interest which the former felt in and towards the latter. It occurs frequently in the introductory section ( Proverbs 2:1 ; Proverbs 3:1, 21 ; Proverbs 4:10, 20 ; Proverbs 5:1 ; Proverbs 6:1 ; Proverbs 7:1 ), and reappears again towards the close ( Proverbs 23:15, 19, 26 ; Proverbs 24:13, 21 ; Proverbs 27:11 ) in the teacher's address. The mother of Lemuel uses it ( Proverbs 31:2 ) in the strictly parental sense. In other passages of the Old Testament the teacher, on the other hand, is represented as a "father" ( Judges 17:10 Isaiah 10:12 ; 2 Kings 2:21 ). We find the same relation assumed in the New Testament, both by St. Paul ( 1 Corinthians 4:15 ; Philemon 1:10 ; Galatians 4:19 ) and by St.

John ( 1 John 2:1 ; 1 John 5:2 ); but under the economy of the gospel it has a deeper significance than here, as pointing to the "new birth," which, being a later revelation, lies outside the scope of the moral teaching of the Old Testament dispensation. The instruction ( מֶוּסַר musar ); as carrying with it the sense of disciplinary education (cf. LXX., παιδεία ; Vulgate, disciplina ; see also ver. 2), and of the correction with which it may be enforced (cf. Proverbs 13:24 ; Proverbs 22:15 ; Proverbs 23:13, 14 ), the writer attributes appropriately to the father, while the milder torah , "law," he uses of the mother (Delitzsch). Father . The nature of the exhortation conveyed in this verse requires that we should understand the terms "father" and "mother" in their natural sense as designating the parents of the persons addressed, though a symbolical meaning has Been attached to them by the rabbis (see Rabbi Salomon, in loc .), "father" being understood as representing God, and "mother," the people. But the terms are more than merely figurative expressions (Stuart). Those who look upon the Proverbs as the address of Solomon to his son Rehoboam naturally take "father" as standing for the former. Naamah, in this case must be the mother ( 1 Kings 14:31 ). It is almost unnecessary to state that pious parents are presupposed, and that only that instruction and law can be meant which is not inconsistent with the higher and more perfect Law of God (Gejerus, Wardlaw).