Section 1:8–19
First lesson: Avoid evil companions
This first lesson may be summarized as follows:
(a) Introduction: Pay attention to your parents’ advice, because it will improve your character (1:8–9).
(b) Lesson: If robbers try to persuade you to do evil (1:10–14), refuse to join them (1:15), because they will destroy their own lives (1:16–18).
(c) Conclusion: People who are greedy and try to obtain wealth illegally will die (1:19).
Some other headings for this section are:
Warnings against Bad Friends (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Advice to a young man to not be tempted by evil people
Paragraph 1:8–9
The words “my son” or “my sons” introduce each of the ten lessons in Proverbs 1–9. These words sometimes also occur for various reasons at the beginning of a paragraph within a lesson. These reasons will be pointed out in each context (1:10a, 1:15a, 3:11a, 5:7a, 7:24a–b.)
1:8
Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:
8a
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
8b and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.
1:8a–b
Listen…to…do not forsake: In this context, the command that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Listen…to includes the idea of “obey” or “pay attention to.” It is parallel to the negative command that the Berean Standard Bible translates as do not forsake. This negative command means “to not reject/neglect” or “to keep on obeying.”
your father’s instruction…the teaching of your mother: The words instruction and teaching both refer to moral advice (compare 6:20). This advice relates to how a person ought to conduct his life. This proverb does not imply a distinction between the father’s instruction and the teaching of your mother. For “instruction,” see discipline in the Glossary.
The words father’s and of your mother also function as one unit. The speaker/father wanted his son to obey his teaching as well as the teaching of his mother.
1:8a
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction: The speaker himself is the father who is referred to here. In some languages, it is not natural for a speaker to refer to himself in third person as “your father.” In such languages, it may be necessary to use a first person pronoun to make explicit that the father is the one who is speaking. For example:
My son, listen to my instruction.
-or-
Listen, my son, to what I your father instruct/advise you.
my son: In this verse, the author writes as if he were a father speaking to a son. See the preceding note and the footnote in Division 1:1–9:18. For the age of the son, see the note on 1:4b.
son: In some languages, the only way to specify a son as opposed to a daughter is to say “male child.” However, it may be awkward or unnatural to address a son in this way. If that is true in your language, it is recommended that you use a general term for “child.” The context will clarify that a young man is being referred to. For example:
My child (Good News Translation)
General Comment on 1:8a–b
In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder the parallel parts so that they form one line. For example:
My child, pay attention to what your father and mother tell you. (Good News Translation)
-or-
My child, obey the teachings of your parents. (Contemporary English Version)
In some languages, it may be more natural for the speaker to refer to himself and the mother using the pronouns “I” and “our.” For example:
My son, pay attention to what your mother and I tell you.
-or-
My child, your mother and I are your parents. Obey our(excl.) teachings.
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