Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 17:6

Children’s children [are] the crown of old men; and the glory of children [are] their fathers.

6. “A beautiful family picture of linked and mutually blessed “generations.” Horton.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The reciprocity of good in sustained family relationships. A long line of childrens children is the glory of old age, a long line of ancestors the glory of their descendants.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

The crown of old men; their honour and happiness, because they are in themselves blessings of God, and testimonies of Gods favour, although sometimes they may become the shame of their fathers house.

Their fathers; namely, such fathers as are wise and godly, as is evident from the nature of the thing, for wicked parents bring infamy upon their children.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6. Prolonged posterity is ablessing, its cutting off a curse (Pro 13:22;Psa 109:13-15), hencechildren may glory in virtuous ancestry.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Children’s children [are] the crown of old men,…. Ancient parents. Grandfathers with the Jews are called old men, as Buxtorf d observes. A numerous progeny was reckoned a great blessing to a man; to have his table surrounded with children, as olive plants; to be encircled with a large family was a crown of glory e; and to live to see children’s children, a large number of grandchildren, was still a greater glory; and especially, as Jarchi observes, when these children, or children’s children, were walking in a good way, in the good ways of religion and godliness, they trained them up in. Christ is the Ancient of days, the everlasting Father; and it is his glory, as Mediator, to see his seed, to have a numerous off spring; and which will endure for ever, as the days of heaven: ministers of the Gospel are spiritual fathers; and those who have been converted under their ministry wilt be their joy and “crown of rejoicing” at the last day, 1Th 2:19;

and the glory of children [are] their fathers; who are wise, as Aben Ezra observes; and righteous, as Jarchi: if they are wise and good men, it is an honour to their children that they descend from them; nor are they ashamed to own their relation to them, but glory in it, as the Jews did in Abraham, saying, “We have Abraham for our father”, Mt 3:9 Lu 3:8: but, on the contrary, if their fathers are foolish or wicked, their children are ashamed of them, and do not care to acknowledge their descent from them; and such parents, who are an honour to their children, their children should be careful to tread in their steps, that they reflect no dishonour on them; particularly as it is our great honour and glory to have God for our father, to be his adopted sons and daughters, we should be followers of him as dear children, and be obedient ones.

d In Lex. Talmud. col. 684. e “Te felix natorum turba coronat”, Claudian. de Raptu Prosperp. l. 1. v. 109.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

With this verse this series of proverbs closes as it began:

A diadem of the old are children’s children,

And the glory of children are their parents.

Children are a blessing from God (Ps 127-128); thus, a family circle consisting of children and grandchildren (including great-grandchildren) is as a crown of glory surrounding the grey-haired patriarch; and again, children have glory and honour in their parents, for to have a man of an honoured name, or of a blessed memory, as a father, is the most effective commendation, and has for the son, even though he is unlike his father, always important and beneficial consequences. In 6b a fact of experience is expressed, from which has proceeded the rank of inherited nobility recognised among men – one may abnegate his social rights, but yet he himself is and remains a part of the moral order of the world. The lxx has a distich after Pro 17:4 the Vatican text places it after Pro 17:6: “The whole world of wealth belongs to the faithful, but to the unfaithful not even an obolus .” Lagarde supposes that is a translation of , instead of , 7a. But this ingenious conjecture does not amount to the regarding of this distich as a variation of Pro 17:7.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

      6 Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.

      They are so, that is, they should be so, and, if they conduct themselves worthily, they are so. 1. It is an honour to parents when they are old to leave children, and children’s children, growing up, that tread in the steps of their virtues, and are likely to maintain and advance the reputation of their families. It is an honour to a man to live so long as to see his children’s children (Psa 128:6; Gen 50:23), to see his house built up in them, and to see them likely to serve their generation according to the will of God. This crowns and completes their comfort in this world. 2. It is an honour to children to have wise and godly parents, and to have them continued to them even after they have themselves grown up and settled in the world. Those are unnatural children who reckon their aged parents a burden to them, and think they live too long; whereas, if the children be wise and good, it is as much their honour as can be that thereby they are comforts to their parents in the unpleasant days of their old age.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

A Model of Family Relationships

Verse 6 cites the joys shared within family generations when there is the love and respect for each other anticipated in divine instructions:

1) Children are an heritage of the LORD, Psa 127:3-4; Gen 33:5; Gen 48:9.

2) Fathers are commanded to instruct the children in the teachings of the LORD, Deu 6:2-7; Eph 6:4. Mothers also instruct, Pro 31:26-28; Eph 61; 2Ti 1:5; 2Ti 3:15.

3) A good man seeks to leave a worthwhile inheritance to his posterity, Pro 13:22; Ezr 9:12; Psa 37:25.

4) Children are commanded to honor and obey father and mother, Exo 20:12; Eph 6:1-3.

5) The LORD blesses obedient children, 2Ch 17:3; 2Ch 26:3-5.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 17:6

FATHERS AND CHILDREN

Two things are implied in this proberb:First, that the fathers are good men. An aged man who is not a godly man cannot in any sense reflect any glory upon his descendants. Secondly, that the children are also godly and true, otherwise they are anything but a crown to their parents. The Wise Man is here speaking of those who are in both relations what God intended them to be. When such is the case

I. The children bring honour to their parents. They testify that the parents have trained them in the way that they should gothat they have given them a good example as well as good advice, and every child is then like a separate mirror, reflecting the character of the godly parent by whose influence he has become what he now is. And the greater number of these mirrors there are, the more brilliant is the crown of honour which is worn by the godly ancestor whose virtues are thus reproduced in his children and in his childrens children, even long after he has left the world. Every tribute of respect that is paid to the children is another jewel placed in the crown of the godly ancestor.

II. The parents are the glory of their children. Men glory in being descended from ancestors who have been great warriors or who have left them a vast inheritance of material wealth, but an inheritance of goodness reflects as much more glory upon those who are its heirs as the glory of heaven exceeds that of earth. Goodness holds a very old patent of nobility, and when children can boast of a long line of God-fearing ancestors, they can boast of a dignity which is as old as God. To be the descendants of those who are now before the throne of God is a glory before which all earthly glory fades away.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(6) Childrens children are the crown of old men.Comp. Psalms 127, 128.

The glory of children are their fathers.And, as such, to be honoured by them. For the blessing which parents bring to children, comp. 1Ki. 11:13; 1Ki. 15:4; Jer. 33:21.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

6. Crown of old men He has had an illustration of this proverb who has met, as the writer has, a venerable patriarch, honoured both for his piety and his intelligence, who counted his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren by scores if not by hundreds, and to whom they all looked up with that veneration and affection which were becoming his years and character. He was as particular about his , ( sepher toledhoth,) book of genealogy family record as one of the patriarchs of old, and enjoined on every branch of his family to report the birth of every child, to be entered in its appropriate place in the family register. Compare on first clause Psa 127:5; Psa 128:3.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

v. 6. Children’s children are the crown of old men, it is a blessing of the Lord and a source of honor and pride to the gray-headed if they see their offspring to the third generation, for the happiness of the younger generation is reflected in the life of the older; and the glory of children are their fathers, for the rule works both ways, and pious children share in the honor enjoyed by their parents.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Pro 17:6 Children’s children [are] the crown of old men; and the glory of children [are] their fathers.

Ver. 6. Children’s children are the crown of old men.] That is, if they be not children those who “cause shame,” as Pro 17:2 , and who disgrace their ancestors – stain their blood; if they obey their parents’ counsel and follow their good example; for otherwise they prove not crowns, but corrosives, to their aged sires, as did Esau, Absalom, Andronicus, and others.

And the glory of children are their parents. ] If those children so well descended do not degenerate, as Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh – or rather of Moses, as the Hebrews read it with a nun suspensum Jdg 18:31 – and as Eli’s, Samuel’s, and some of David’s sons did. Heroum filii noxae. Manasseh had a good father, but he degenerated into his grandfather Ahaz, as if there had been no intervention of a Hezekiah. So we have seen the kernel of a well-fruited plant degenerate into that crab or willow that gave the original to his stock. But what an honour was it to Jacob that he could swear “by the fear of his father Isaac!” – to David, that he could, in a real and heavenly compliment, say to his Maker, “Truly, Lord, I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid!” Psa 116:16 – to Timothy, that the same faith that was in him had dwelt first “in his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice!” 2Ti 1:5 – to the children of the elect lady! &c. – to Mark, that he was Barnabas’s sister’s son! – to Alexander and Rufus, men mentioned only, Mar 15:21 , but famously known in the Church to be the sons of Simon of Cyrene! – to the sons of Constantine the Great, to come of such a father, whom they did wholly put on, saith Eusebius, a and exactly resemble! – to be descended of those glorious martyrs and confessors that suffered here in Queen Mary’s days!

a K . – Euseb.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)