Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 29:15
The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left [to himself] bringeth his mother to shame.
15. left to himself] Comp. 1Ki 1:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Left to himself – The condition of one who has been pampered and indulged. The mother who yields weakly is as guilty of abandoning the child she spoils, as if she cast him forth; and for her evil neglect, there shall fall upon her the righteous punishment of shame and ignominy.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 29:15
The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
A neglected education, the parents dishonour
I. Look at the child left to himself. That is, without reproof, and that grave advice which gives wisdom. The original term is applied to the unbridled impetuosity of an animal. The child, if not held in by the bit and bridle of a religious education–if left to the impetuosity of his own passions–will be ruined. Appeal to the nature of things. What is there left to itself that comes to any good? What is land without inclosure and cultivation? Appeal to experience as to the effect of a neglected education. Who are the pests of society? Appeal to Scripture.
II. The effect of this neglect. Look at the parent. Bringeth his mother to shame. This is only one result. Other things follow. Ruin to the childs principles. All the consequences of his conduct to a neighbourhood. Tendencies to sap the foundations of morality and justice between man and man. In all this there seems to be a remarkable feature of the retributive justice of God in His moral government. The education of children in the fear of God is one of the first and self-evident duties, the foundation of all moral good. But it is implied that a child carefully trained for God and religion shall not bring his mother to shame.
III. The motives flowing from these considerations.
1. Enforce this duty on our own hearts.
2. See it in reference to the children of the poor.
3. The need of guarding children against the evil influence of the press. Show what religion you possess by your endeavours to educate your children religiously. (Daniel Wilson, M.A.)
A child neglected, a parents disgrace
I. The affecting object: A child left to himself. Allusion is probably intended to the natural impetuosity of a horse.
1. A child left without religious instruction. Parents are enjoined to train up a child in the way he should go: not the way he would go. Education must have its foundation in Scripture. The spirit of the age requires that parental instructions should be of a decidedly Scriptural character. The work of instilling Divine truth must be commenced early. Train them to early habits of industry, to diligent reading of the Scriptures, and to constant prayer.
2. A child left without fervent prayer. Do you know the way to a throne of grace, and can you forget the child of your affections? If you do not pray for him it is not likely that you will pray with him.
3. A child left without a good example. Children understand actions better than words. The parent who, by his ungodly example, betrays the confidence of his child by leading him in the way of sin when he should guide him in the paths of piety and peace is guilty of a species of cruelty difficult to be described.
4. A child left to himself is one without salutary restraint. Instruction should be enforced by authority. If you lose your influence, the child will assume it and rule you, when you should govern him. In compelling obedience the happy medium should be observed between too much harshness on the one hand and too great laxity on the other. Eli does not appear to have failed either in instruction or example, but he is censured for withholding restraint. Let there be energy of character, efficient discipline, the tenderness of love blended with firmness of decision, and there will seldom be a necessity for adopting any painful or severe measures.
II. The parents disgrace. The duties and responsibilities of parents are mutual. It must, however, be admitted that a mothers influence is more powerful, her appeals more touching, her access to the heart more easy. But how many parents have passed days of sorrow and nights of sleeplessness in consequence of the misconduct of their offspring! Much of your future happiness is in the hands of your children. Look at the nature of things. A field without cultivation would speedily be overgrown by noxious weeds. Appeal to experience. Who are the Sabbath-breakers, the drunkards, the lawless and disobedient, the scoffers at Divine things? Are they not the persons who, in their childhood and youth, were left to themselves? Examine facts. David was brought to shame by Absalom and Adonijah. Hophni and Phineas brought Eli to shame.
1. A word of expostulation. You are leaving your children to themselves because you have never felt the value of your own soul. Think of your own comfort. Think of your countrys welfare. Think of the approbation of heaven.
2. A word of exhortation. Your danger is great. Repent and believe the gospel.
3. A word of encouragement. The Christian parent has much to animate him in the conscientious discharge of his duty. All the promises of God, the experience of the past, and the hope of the future encourage his affectionate endeavours to train up his children in the fear of the Lord. He must not; however, expect harvest in spring. (James Cottle, B.A.)
The importance of early discipline
If we have conscientiously performed any particular duty, no failure in the object to which it has been directed can inflict disgrace. We may do our part, and do it well, but we cannot command success by our best contrivances and our utmost diligence. It is not every child who is trained up in the way he should go that walks in that way. In such cases, deplorable as they are, no disgrace attaches to the parent, the instructor, the guardian. It is when the duty imposed by God and enforced by natural feelings has been neglected that the ignorant, the vicious, or the worldly character becomes the just reproach upon those to whom it is in that case justly to be ascribed. A child left to himself. How many ideas of compassion are suggested by these words! A child, however carefully nourished and guarded, left to himself in regard to his soul, his intellect, his tempers, habits, and character, is no uncommon case. A child left to himself is a child untaught. For them to be grounded in the languages, informed in history, and embellished with every usual branch of knowledge and accomplishment is not enough. To know God alone is life eternal. Too often children are practically left to themselves to gather their notions of religion from the opinions around them and the current literature of the day. They ought to have been trained from childhood to know the Holy Scriptures; they should have been taught their ruined state, the love of God in the gift of His Son, and the love of Christ in giving Himself to the death upon the Cross. The child untaught is often undisciplined and unrestrained. The twig which might have been bent becomes firm as the gnarled oak. Habits of self-will, habits of self-gratification, habits of idleness perhaps, prepare for everything that is bad. When a child has been thus left to himself what can be expected but vice, want of honourable principle, a character passionate, headstrong, reckless? It cannot be a surprise that, in such a case, disgrace is thrown back upon the parents. The parent and the child are allied as long as recollection can associate them, and honour or dishonour they reflect, and cannot but reflect, upon each other. If parents neglect the soil and suffer it to be overrun with weeds what can they expect to be the harvest? The shame and discredit that come will be shared by both parents, but the feeling is fastened upon the heart of the mother in a manner and degree which are peculiarly severe. This is partly the case because so much depends on a mothers care, and partly because of the keener sensibilities of her sex. To the mother her domestic scene is the whole world. The shame which comes upon her as the punishment of neglected duty gathers intensity by its perpetual concentration of the reflection. Let me urge upon you as parents to encounter your arduous and responsible duty with the firm resolve that you will, heavens grace assisting you, vigorously discharge it. They are beings to eternity, and for eternity it is your duty to prepare them. (T. Kennion, M.A.)
Leaving children to themselves
Left to himself means left alone, with nobody to mind him and take notice of what he does. This, however, does not seem to have been the meaning of the author of the proverb. Hebrew writers, in their poetry, would sometimes bring two thoughts together, meaning nearly the same, only expressed in different words. Sometimes they would bring two thoughts together, the meaning of which is exactly opposite. This is the thing we have in the text before us. The words rod and reproof are intended to be opposite to the words a child left to himself. A mother may have her child almost always with her and yet be leaving him to himself. A child is left to himself whenever he is allowed to do as he likes, whenever his character is not watched over, and his evil inclinations checked. It is the spoilt child who brings his mother to shame. The mother is specially mentioned because she has the first and the most direct and constant influence on the child. And when children are allowed to do as they like it is usually from a weak fondness and over-indulgence on the mothers part rather than on the fathers. In all reproof of the faults of children the object aimed at is not merely to guide them aright at the present time, but also to make them able to guide themselves aright when they shall have become older, correct their own faults, and restrain their own inclination to what is evil. A self-willed child brings his mother to shame, because the remarks of her acquaintance on his character and conduct never fail to reach her ears. In nine cases out of ten, shameful conduct on the part of a man signifies shameful carelessness on the part of that mans mother when he was a child and subject to her authority and influence. The children who are sure to honour their mother when they grow up are those who in childhood were kept in their proper place, whose waywardness and inclination to what is evil were kept in check with the greatest kindness indeed, but still with the greatest firmness. Children thus trained have something to be grateful for. One cannot but believe that the grace of God often reclaims in after-years, and restores to what they should have been, many of those whose character seemed deeply injured and likely to be ruined by the mistaken treatment of a parent in childhood. But must it not sometimes be the case that the grace of God does not reclaim them? For our wills are free. It should be borne in mind that a father and a mother constantly differ much from each other in character and in their ideas of their duty towards their children, and so the one may in part correct the mischievous influence of the other. And the evil influence of home is, happily, often corrected by the beneficial influence of school discipline. (W. H. Nauben, M.A.)
Left to himself
1. Left to himself, he will not fully know right or wrong.
2. Left to himself, he will grow proud and self-confident.
3. Left to himself, he will take up with bad companions.
4. Left to himself, he will think more about his pleasures than his duties.
5. Left to himself, childish follies will develop into mans vices. (Robert Tuck, B.A.)
A child left to himself
Thelwall thought it very unfair to influence a childs mind by inculcating any opinions before it should have come to years of discretion and be able to choose for itself. I showed him my garden, and told him it was my botanical garden. How so? said he; it is covered with weeds. Oh, I replied, that is only because it has not yet come to its age of discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow, and I thought it unfair in me to prejudice the soil towards roses and strawberries. (Coleridges Table Talk.)
Children impressed by gentle rule
It is a great mistake to suppose that what will make a child stare or tremble impresses more authority. The violent emphasis, the hard, stormy voice, the menacing air only weakens authority; it commands a good thing as if it were only a bad, and fit to be no way impressed, save by some stress of assumption. Let the command be always given quietly, as if it had some right in itself and could utter itself to the conscience by some emphasis of its own. Is it not well understood that a bawling and violent teamster has no real government of his team? Is it not practically seen that a skilful commander of one of those huge floating cities, moved by steam on our American waters, manages and works every motion by the waving of a hand, or by signs that pass in silence–issuing no order at all, save in the gentlest undertone of voice? So when there is, or is to be, a real order and law in the house, it will come of no hard and boisterous or fretful and termagent way of commandment. Gentleness will speak the word of firmness, and firmness will be clothed in the airs of true gentleness. (H. Bushnell.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The rod and reproof; correction and instruction going together.
Left to himself; suffered to follow his own will or lusts without restraint and chastening. His mother, and father too; but he names only the mother, either because her indulgence oft spoils the child, or because children commonly stand in least awe of their mothers, and abuse the weakness of their sex, and tenderness of their natures.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. (Compare Pro 13:24;Pro 23:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The rod and reproof give wisdom,…. Are the means of giving wisdom to a child, reproved by its parent with the rod; and of driving out foolishness from him, and of making him wiser for the time to come; he shunning those evils for which he was before corrected, Pr 22:15; So the children of God grow wiser by the corrections and chastisements of their heavenly Father, which are always for their good; and he is a man of wisdom that hearkens to the rod, and to him that has appointed it, and learns the proper instructions from it, Mic 6:9;
but a child left to [himself] bringeth his mother to shame; a child that has the reins thrown upon his neck, is under no restraint of parents, but suffered to take his own way, is left to do his own will and pleasure; he does those things which his parents are ashamed of, one as well as another; though the mother is only mentioned, being generally most fond and indulgent, and most criminal in suffering children to have their own wills and ways; and so has the greater share in the shame that follows on such indulgences.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
A proverb with , Pro 29:15, is placed next to one with , but it begins a group of proverbs regarding discipline in the house and among the people:
15 The rod and reproof give wisdom;
But an undisciplined son is a shame to his mother.
With [a rod], which Pro 22:15 also commends as salutary, refers to discipline by means of words, which must accompany bodily discipline, and without them is also necessary; the construction of the first line follows in number and gender the scheme Pro 27:9, Zec 7:7; Ewald, 339c. In the second line the mother is named, whose tender love often degenerates into a fond indulgence; such a darling, such a mother’s son, becomes a disgrace to his mother. Our “ ausgelassen ,” by which Hitzig translates , is used of joyfulness unbridled and without self-restraint, and is in the passage before us too feeble a word; is used of animals pasturing at liberty, wandering in freedom (Job 39:5; Isa 16:2); is accordingly a child who is kept in by no restraint and no punishment, one left to himself, and thus undisciplined (Luther, Gesenius, Fleischer, and others).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
Parents, in educating their children, must consider, 1. The benefit of due correction. They must not only tell their children what is good and evil, but they must chide them, and correct them too, if need be, when they either neglect that which is good or do that which is evil. If a reproof will serve without the rod, it is well, but the rod must never be used without a rational and grave reproof; and then, though it may be a present uneasiness both to the father and to the child, yet it will give wisdom. Vexatio dat intellectum–Vexation sharpens the intellect. The child will take warning, and so will get wisdom. 2. The mischief of undue indulgence: A child that is not restrained or reproved, but is left to himself, as Adonijah was, to follow his own inclinations, may do well if he will, but, if he take to ill courses, nobody will hinder him; it is a thousand to one but he proves a disgrace to his family, and brings his mother, who fondled him and humoured him in his licentiousness, to shame, to poverty, to reproach, and perhaps will himself be abusive to her and give her ill language.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Child Discipline
Verse 15 prescribes the proper discipline for the child. Reproof first, followed by the rod, because foolishness is bound in the heart of the child, and also for the reason that if not disciplined, he will bring shame upon his parents, Vs 15; Pro 13:24; Pro 19:18; Pro 22:15; Pro 23:13; Pro 22:6; Pro 29:17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(15) A child left to himself.Allowed to wander unchecked as the wild ass (Job. 39:5).
Bringeth his mother to shame.Whose foolish indulgence has ruined him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Left to himself , ( na’har,) a boy permitted to go where he pleases; or , ( meshullahh,) sent forth without parental control, neglected, uncontrolled. Such a child will bring disgrace upon his family. Solomon was a wise man, and believed in the rod when necessary.
Bringeth shame Makes his mother ashamed puts her to the blush. “Mothers are wont to be most at fault in indulging their children, and, therefore, bear the chief shame of their faults.” Von Gerloch. Comp. Pro 29:7; Pro 10:1; Pro 17:21; Pro 17:25; Pro 23:13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Source of Evil Shown
v. 15. The rod and reproof, v. 16. When the wicked are multiplied, v. 17. Correct thy son, v. 18. Where there is no vision, the people perish; v. 19. A servant will not be corrected by words, v. 20. Seest thou a man that is hasty In his words? v. 21. He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child, v. 22. An angry man, v. 23. A man’s pride shall bring him low, v. 24. Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul, v. 25. The fear of man bringeth a snare, v. 26. Many seek the ruler’s favor, v. 27. An unjust man is an abomination to the just,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left [to himself] bringeth his mother to shame.
Ver. 15. The rod and reproof give wisdom. ] If reproof do the deed, the rod may be spared, and not else. Chrysippus is by some cried out upon as the first that brought the use of a rod into the schools; but there is no doing without it; for children are foolish, apt to imitate others in their vices, before they know them to be vices; and though better taught, yet easily corrupted by evil company, as young lapwings are soon snatched up by every buzzard. Now, therefore, as moths are beaten out of garments with a rod, so must vices out of children’s hearts. Vexatio dat intellectum: Smart makes wit; it is put in with the rod of correction. See Pro 22:15 .
But a child left to himself bringeth his mother, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 29:15
Pro 29:15
“The rod and reproof give wisdom; But a child left to himself causeth shame to his mother.”
Pro 13:24 and Pro 23:13 also deal with discipline for children. See comments under similar proverbs. In several other disciplinary instructions, the undisciplined son is said to cause shame, grief, etc. to his father; and the wise or well-disciplined son is said to bring joy to his father. See Pro 17:21 and Pro 23:24-25. Toy noted that, “The mother might have been mentioned here (1) because she is charged with the principal duty of rearing the child, or (2) merely for rhetorical purposes. Really, what is said of either parent, in this connection, is certainly true of both.
Pro 29:15. When children misbehave, they need correction (Correct thy son, and he will give thee rest-Pro 29:17), If you dont, if you let him keep on in his ways, he will bring shame to his mother and other heartaches to both parents: A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother (Pro 10:1); He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow; And the father of a fool hath no joy (Pro 17:21); A foolish son is a grief to his father, And bitterness to her that bare him (Pro 17:25). In correcting, some merely talk to their children, and others merely whip them. But this verse points out the necessity of doing both properly, for it speaks of the rod (whipping) and of reproof (talking) giving wisdom. Dont you want your child to be wise? Then wisely reprove him and wisely whip him. This is Bible: Pro 19:18; Pro 22:15; Pro 23:13-14; Eph 6:4; Heb 12:9. A child left to himself is one who is neglected, whose parents have not taught him, have not overseen him, have not been with him, have not loved him, and have not corrected him. Pulpit Commentary: The verb translated left is used in Job 39:5 of the wild ass left to wander free where it wills. No child is capable of self-rearing. Such neglected offspring causeth shame. His parents who neglected him will be ashamed of him, and his desire to get away from home will probably be matched by their relief to see him go!
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
a rod, Pro 29:17, Pro 29:21, Pro 22:6, Pro 22:15, Pro 23:13, Pro 23:14, Heb 12:10, Heb 12:11
a child: Pro 10:1, Pro 10:5, Pro 17:21, Pro 17:25, 1Ki 1:6
Reciprocal: 1Sa 3:13 – restrained them not Pro 6:23 – and reproofs Pro 13:24 – General Pro 19:18 – Chasten Pro 28:7 – but Eph 6:4 – but Heb 12:7 – endure
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 29:15. The rod and reproof give wisdom Correction and instruction going together; but a child left to himself Suffered to follow his own will without restraint and chastening; bringeth his mother to shame And father too, but he names only the mother, either because her indulgence often spoils the child, or because children commonly stand least in awe of their mothers, and abuse the weakness of their sex, and tenderness of their nature.