Proverbs 19:18

Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) And let not thy soul spare for his crying.—Or, but set not thy soul on his destruction. Do not go so far as to kill him in thy zeal for his good, or despair of his amendment. (Comp. Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21.) It may also signify “do not let him perish for want of chastisement,” as Proverbs 23:13 is also explained.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 19:18. Chasten thy son while there is hope — Before custom in sin, and thy indulgence have made him hard-hearted and incorrigible; and let not thy soul spare for his crying — Forbear not to give him due and necessary correction, through a foolish and destructive pity, excited by his tears and cries; for it is better he should cry under thy rod, than under the sword of the magistrate, or, which is more to be feared, that of divine vengeance.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:14. A discreet and virtuous wife is more valuable than house and riches. 15. A sluggish, slothful disposition makes men poor; it brings them to want. And this applies both to the present life and that which is to come. 16. If we keep God's word, God's word will keep us from every thing really hurtful. We abuse the doctrine of free grace, if we think that it does away the necessity and advantage of obedience. Those that live at random must die. This truth is clearly taught in words enough to alarm the stoutest sinner. 17. God has chosen the poor of this world, to be rich in faith, and heirs of his kingdom. 18. When parents keep under foolish tenderness, they do their best to render children a comfort to them, and happy in themselves.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

While there is hope - While he is still young, and capable of being reformed.

Crying - Better, as in the margin, Do not set thy soul on his destruction; words which either counsel forbearance in the act of chastisement (compare Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21); or urge that a false clemency is a real cruelty. The latter sense is preferable. The father is warned that to forbear from chastising is virtually to expose the son who needs it to a far worse penalty.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. (Compare Pr 13:24; 23:13).

let not … spare—literally, "do not lift up thy soul" (Ps 24:4; 25:1), that is, do not desire to his death; a caution to passionate parents against angry chastisement.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

While there is hope; before custom in sin, and thy indulgence, hath made him hard-hearted and incorrigible.

Let not thy soul spare, forbear not to give him due and necessary correction,

for his crying, which oft stirs up a foolish and pernicious pity in parents towards them. This word, with some small difference in the points, is used in this sense Isaiah 24:11. Or, as it is in the margin, to his destruction, intimating that this is a cruel pity, and a likely way to expose him to that death threatened to stubborn sons, Deu 21:18,21. But this clause is, and may be, rendered otherwise, yet or but do not lift up thy soul (which signifies a vehement desire, Deu 24:15 Psalm 25:1 Jeremiah 44:14; let not thy passion or eager desire of chastening him transport thee so far as) to cause him to die, i.e. use moderation in this work.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Chasten thy son while there is hope,.... Of guiding and keeping him in the right way, as long as corrections are or can be hoped to be of use; while in a state of infancy, childhood, and youth; while under parental government; and before habits in sin are grown strong, and the case become desperate, and he is hardened, and proof against all instruction and discipline;

and let not thy soul spare for his crying; the noise he makes, the tears he sheds, the entreaties he uses to keep off the rod; let not a foolish pity and tenderness prevail to lay it aside on that account the consequence of which may be bad to parent and child; see Proverbs 13:24. The Targum is,

"but unto his death do not lift up thy soul;''

or to the slaying of him (t), as the Vulgate Latin version; and this sense Jarchi gives into: and then the meaning is, that though parents should be careful to give due correction to their children, so long as there is hope of doing them good, yet not in a brutal and barbarous manner, to the endangering of their lives: as some parents are too indolent, mild, and gentle, as Eli was; others are too wrathful and furious and use no moderation in their corrections, but unmercifully beat their children; such extremes ought to be avoided. Gersom interprets the word of crying, as we do.

(t) "ad interficiendum cum", Pagninus, Vatablus, Mercerus, Gejerus; "ad occidendum sum", Piscator, Cocceius, Tigurine version, Michaelis, Schultens, Gussetius, p. 534.

Geneva Study Bible

Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. while] R.V. seeing: i.e. for if done now it will not be too late.

let not thy soul spare for his crying] Rather, set not thy heart on his destruction, R.V.; lit. on causing him to die. This might mean, let not thy passionate and excessive correction kill or injure him; as LXX., Vulg. and Maurer (sed cave occidas inter castigandum), and Coverdale, “but let not thy soul be moved to slay him”; but it is better to understand it of the result of withholding correction: be not bent by thy foolish indulgence on ruining him. So A.V. marg., “Let not thy soul spare to his destruction, or to cause him to die.” Comp. 1 Kings 2:6; and Sir 30:1.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - Chasten thy son while there is hope; or. seeing that there is hope. Being still young and impressionable, and not confirmed in bad habits, he may be reformed by judicious chastisement. The same expression occurs in Job 11:18; Jeremiah 31:16. "For so he shall be well hoped of" (εὔελπις), Septuagint (comp. Proverbs 23:13). And let not thy soul spare for his crying. "It is better," says a German apothegm, "that the child weep than the father." But the rendering of the Authorized Version is not well established, and this second clause is intended to inculcate moderation in punishment. Vulgate, Ad interfectionem autem ejus ne ponas animam tuam; Revised Version. Set not thine heart on his destruction. Chastise him duty and sufficiently, but not so heavily as to occasion his death, which a father had no right to do. The Law enjoined the parents who had an incorrigibly bad son to bring him before the judge or the eiders, who alone had the power of life and death, and might in certain cases order the offender to be stoned (Deuteronomy 21:18, etc.). Christianity recommended moderation in punishment (see Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21). Septuagint, "Be not excited in the mind to despiteful treatment (εἰς ὕβριν);" i.e. be not led away by passion to unseemly acts or words, but reprove with gentleness, while you are firm and uncompromising in denouncing evil. This is much the same advice as that given by the apostle in the passages just cited. Proverbs 19:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This proverb brings to view once more the pedagogic character of this Older Book of Proverbs:

Correct thy son, for yet there is hope;

But go not too far to kill him.

That כּי tahT is meant relatively, as at Proverbs 11:15, is seen from Job 11:18; Job 14:7; Jeremiah 31:16.; כּי־ישׁ תּקוה is the usual expression for etemin spes est. Though a son show obstinacy, and manifest a bad disposition, yet there is hope in the training of the youth of being able to break his self-will, and to wean him from his bad disposition; therefore his education should be carried forward with rigorous exactness, but in such a way that wisdom and love regulate the measure and limits of correction: ad eum interficiendum animam ne tollas (animum ne inducas). נפשׁך is not the subject, for in that case the word would have been תּשּׁאך (2 Kings 14:10). It is the object: To raise the soul to something is equivalent to, to direct his desire to it, to take delight in it. The teacher should not seek correction as the object, but only as the means; he who has a desire after it, to put the child to death in the case of his guilt, changes correction into revenge, permits himself to be driven by passion from the proper end of correction, and to be pushed beyond its limits. The lxx translates freely εἰς δὲ ὕβρις, for ὕβρις is unrestrained abuse, מוסר אכזרי as Immanuel glosses. Besides, all the ancients and also the Venet. translate המיתו as the inf. of המית. But Oetinger (for he translates: lift not thy soul to his cry, for which Euchel: let not his complaining move thy compassion) follows the derivation from המה suggested by Kimchi, Meri, and Immanuel, and preferred by Ralbag, so that המיתו after the from בּכית is equivalent to המיתו. But leaving out of view that המה means strepere, not lamentari, and that נשׂא נפשׁו means attention, not desire, Proverbs 23:13 points out to us a better interpretation.