Proverbs 23:24

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

גול

gîyl

H1524

“rejoicing”

Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute

Appears 11× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Job 3:22

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1523

TWOT: 346a , b

a rejoicing - a circle, age

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

12: words
7: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is גול rejoicing H1524 — appearing just 11 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

גול rejoicing H1524 occurs in 10 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

8 verbs
1 noun
2 adjectives
1 preposition

Verb forms

גול Qal · Infinitive Absolute
גִּ֣יל Qal · Infinitive Absolute
יגול Qal · Imperfect
יָ֭גִיל Qal · Imperfect
יולד Qal · Participle Active
וְיוֹלֵ֥ד Qal · Participle Active
וישמח Qal · Imperfect
יִשְׂמַח Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וישמח to rejoice H8055 ×3
גול rejoicing H1524 ×2
יגול to rejoice H1523 ×2
יולד to bear H3205 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 16 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 12 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Proverbs 23:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Proverbs 10:1 The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father; But a foolish son brings grief to his mother.
Proverbs 15:20 A wise son makes a father glad, But a foolish man despises his mother.
Proverbs 23:15–16 My son, if your heart is wise, Then my heart will be glad, even mine:
Proverbs 29:3 Whoever loves wisdom brings joy to his father; But a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.
Philemon 1:20 Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord.
Philemon 1:9 yet for love's sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
1 Kings 2:1–3 Now the days of David drew near that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,
1 Kings 2:9 Now therefore don't hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.

Ecclesiastes 2:19 Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
1 Kings 1:48 Also thus said the king, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne this day, my eyes even seeing it.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Proverbs 23:24 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

גול גִּ֣יל יגול יָ֭גִיל אֲבִ֣י צַדִּ֑יק יולד וְיוֹלֵ֥ד חָ֝כָ֗ם וישמח יִשְׂמַח בּֽוֹ

The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Proverbs 23:24 Septuagint · lemma form

καλῶς ἐκτρέφω πατήρ δίκαιος ἐπί δέ υἱός σοφός εὐφραίνω ὁ ψυχή αὐτός

A righteous father brings up his children well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Proverbs 23:24 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Pro 23:24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise [child] shall have joy of him.

Ver. 24. The father of the righteous, &c.] {See Trapp on "Pro 10:1"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

(Compare Pro 10:1; Pro 17:21, Pro 17:25).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Gill's Exposition

The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice,.... Or "in rejoicing shall rejoice" (d), in his son; not that he is rich, but righteous, truly righteous, internally and externally; having the righteousness of Christ imputed to him, and righteousness and true holiness wrought in him, and so lives soberly, righteously, and godly: this must be understood of a father who is himself righteous; for otherwise wicked men, if their sons do but thrive in the world, they are unconcerned about their character as righteous, or their state and condition God-ward;

and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him; especially if he is wise in the best things; if he is wise unto salvation; he may be wise and knowing in things natural, have a good share of wit and sense, and be wise in worldly things, which may yield a pleasure to a natural man his parent; but, if he is a good man, he will have greater joy of his son if he is wise in the first sense. The mother and grandmother of Timothy had no doubt great joy of him, who, from a child, knew the holy Scriptures; and so had the elect lady of her children, who were walking in the truth; and so has our heavenly Father of his children, who are righteous and wise through his grace.

(d) "exultando exultabit", Paguinus, Montanus, Mercerus, Gejerus, Michaelis; "gaudendo gaudebit", Cocceias.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Pulpit Commentary

The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice. The father of a righteous son who has won truth and profited by the possession has good cause to be glad. (Pro_10:1) Septuagint erroneously, "A righteous father brings up children well." The second clause repeats the first in different words, with the further idea that the wise son affords his father practical proof of the excellence of his moral training. The contrast is seen in Pro_17:21.

Vers 24 26. See homily on Pro_10:1. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Kretzmann's Popular Commentary

Paul E. Kretzmann

v. 24. The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice, being filled with happiness on account of the fact that his son turned out so well and is an honor to his father; and he that begetteth a wise child, one who has acquired true wisdom and understanding, shall have joy of him, this fact will make his old age pleasant.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

These verses continue the "thirty sayings" (Proverbs 22:20).

The father of the righteous person will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise child will be glad in him

Another possible meaning is that the words "he that begets a wise child" explain who "the father of the righteous person" is. AT: "The father of the righteous person, he who begets a wise child, will greatly rejoice and will be glad in him"

will be glad in him

"will be glad because of him"

translationWords

joy

wise

children

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Proverbs, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 12 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is gîyl (“rejoicing”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “rejoicing” (gîyl) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Job 3:22 shares the word «rejoicing» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to rejoice” occurs 3× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «גול» is Qal Infinitive Absolute. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 12 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 18 words in this verse.
“to rejoice” occurs 3× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 12 words in this verse.