Proverbs 1:8
New International Version
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

New Living Translation
My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.

English Standard Version
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching,

Berean Standard Bible
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

King James Bible
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

New King James Version
My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother;

New American Standard Bible
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, And do not ignore your mother’s teaching;

NASB 1995
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;

NASB 1977
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;

Legacy Standard Bible
Hear, my son, your father’s discipline And do not abandon your mother’s instruction;

Amplified Bible
My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not reject the teaching of your mother.

Christian Standard Bible
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching,

American Standard Version
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Hear, my son, the law of your father and do not forget the law of your mother.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and reject not the rules of thy mother.

Contemporary English Version
My child, obey the teachings of your parents,

Douay-Rheims Bible
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother :

English Revised Version
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
My son, listen to your father's discipline, and do not neglect your mother's teachings,

Good News Translation
My child, pay attention to what your father and mother tell you.

International Standard Version
My son, listen to your father's instruction, and do not let go of your mother's teaching.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the teaching of thy mother;

Literal Standard Version
Hear, my son, the instruction of your father, | And do not leave the law of your mother,

Majority Standard Bible
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

New American Bible
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching;

NET Bible
Listen, my child, to the instruction from your father, and do not forsake the teaching from your mother.

New Revised Standard Version
Hear, my child, your father’s instruction, and do not reject your mother’s teaching;

New Heart English Bible
My son, listen to your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching:

Webster's Bible Translation
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

World English Bible
My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching;

Young's Literal Translation
Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, And leave not the law of thy mother,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Enticement of Sin
8Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother. 9For they are a garland of grace on your head and a pendant around your neck.…

Cross References
Deuteronomy 21:18
If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,

Proverbs 4:1
Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.

Proverbs 5:13
I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.

Proverbs 6:20
My son, keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake your mother's teaching.

Proverbs 23:22
Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Jeremiah 35:8
And we have obeyed the voice of our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab in all he commanded us. So we have not drunk wine all our lives--neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters.


Treasury of Scripture

My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother:

my son

Proverbs 1:10,15
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not…

Proverbs 2:1
My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

Proverbs 3:1
My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:

hear

Proverbs 4:1-4
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding…

Proverbs 5:1,2
My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: …

Proverbs 6:20
My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

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Ear Father's Forsake Hear Instruction Law Mother Mother's Reject Teaching Training
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Ear Father's Forsake Hear Instruction Law Mother Mother's Reject Teaching Training
Proverbs 1
1. The use of the proverbs
7. An exhortation to fear God, and believe his word
10. to avoid the enticing of sinners
20. Wisdom complains of her contempt
24. She threatens her contemners














(8) My son.--The address as of a master to his pupil. This phrase only occurs twice again in Proverbs, excepting in sections (2) and (4).

Law.--Rather, teaching. (Comp. Proverbs 3:1.)

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). And forsake not the law of thy mother. Forsake. The radical meaning of הִּטּשׁ (tittosh) is that of "spreading," then of "scattering" (Aiken), and so the word comes to mean "forsake, reject, or neglect." The LXX. reads ἀπώσῃ, from ἀποθέω, abjicere, "to push away, reject." Cf. abjicias (Arabic). The Vulgate has dimittas, i.e. "abandon," and the Syriac, obliviscaris, i.e. "forget." The law; תּורַת (torath), construct case of תּורַה (torah), from the root יָרָה (yarah), "to teach," hence here equivalent to "a law" in the sense of that which teaches - a precept (doctrina, Jun. et Tremell., Piscat., Castal., Versions). With one exception (Proverbs 8:10), it is the term which always expresses the instruction given by Wisdom (Delitzsch). The law (torah) of the mother is that preceptive teaching which she imparts orally to her son, but torah is also used in a technical sense as lex, νόμος δέσμος, that which is laid down and established, a decretum or institutum, and designates some distinct provision or ordinance, as the law of sacrifice (Leviticus 6:7). In Joshua 1:8 we find it employed to signify the whole body of the Mosaic Law (sepher hatorah). Mother. Not inserted here as a natural expansion of the idea of the figure required by the laws of poetic parallelism (as Zockler), since this weakens the force of the passage. Mothers are mentioned because of their sedulousness in imparting instruction (Bayne).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Listen,
שְׁמַ֣ע (šə·ma‘)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 8085: To hear intelligently

my son,
בְּ֭נִי (bə·nî)
Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 1121: A son

to your father’s
אָבִ֑יךָ (’ā·ḇî·ḵā)
Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 1: Father

instruction,
מוּסַ֣ר (mū·sar)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4148: Chastisement, reproof, warning, instruction, restraint

and do not forsake
תִּ֝טֹּ֗שׁ (tiṭ·ṭōš)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 5203: To pound, smite, to disperse, to thrust off, down, out, upon

the teaching
תּוֹרַ֥ת (tō·w·raṯ)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 8451: Direction, instruction, law

of your mother.
אִמֶּֽךָ׃ (’im·me·ḵā)
Noun - feminine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 517: A mother, )


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 1:8 My son listen to your father's instruction (Prov. Pro Pr)
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