Proverbs 3:12

Pro 3:12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son [in whom] he delighteth.

Ver. 12. For whom the Lord loveth.] The saints’ afflictions proceed oft from love displeased, offended. And yet we have some now that tell us that God is never displeased with his people, though they fall into adultery, or the like sin, no, not with a fatherly displeasure; that God never chastiseth his people for any sin, no, not with a fatherly chastisement. But he (though a father) doth alter the set of his looks towards his child, who is wanton upon his love, and lets down the diligence of his just observance and duty.

In whom he delighteth.] Quem unice diligit, Whom he cockers above the rest of his children. That son in whom he is well pleased, saith Mercerus; quem approbat, whom he makes his whiteboy. So Theophylact, Qui excipitur a numero flagellatorum, excipitur a numero filiorum. He that escapes affliction, may well suspect his adoption. See my "Love tokens," p. 54,55.

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.

Pro_3:12

For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

The characteristics of fatherly chastisement

The paternal relation is frequently ascribed to the Almighty, as that in which He stands to His people and servants. This reminds them that they are placed by Him under discipline, and that, if they offend, they must expect to receive chastisement.

I. A father will chastise his son with reluctance. He will try all other means first. When he does chastise it will be as one that yields to a painful necessity. So God does not afflict willingly. We cannot explain the reasons of the distinctions which are made by Divine Providence, apparently without respect to differences of character in the subjects of them. There are circumstances lying too deep for human view, which justify Gods ways.

II. A father will chasten his son with tenderness. He may be severe, he will not be cruel. When God chastens, it is in tenderness; when He sends affliction, He mitigates its severity, and does not permit it utterly to lay waste our comforts. His afflictions leave no permanently injurious effects.

III. A father will chasten his son with a view to his profit. The good of his child is his great and ultimate object. God has many gracious ends to serve by affliction. It may be designed--

1. To restrain us when we are ready to enter on sinful courses.

2. They may operate as seasonable mementoes in regard to the insecurity of our state here, and the necessity of preparing to meet our God.

3. They may be designed to try and call into exercise Christian graces, to wean our affections from the world, to awaken holy desires after God and heaven. (James Henderson, D.D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

he delighteth--or receiveth as denoting reconciliation regarding the offense which produced chastisement.

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

Verse 12. Whom the Lord loveth] To encourage thee to bear correction, know that it is a proof of God's love to thee; and thereby he shows that he treats thee as a father does his son, even that one to whom he bears the fondest affection.

The last clause the Septuagint translate μαστιγοι δε παντα υἱον ὁν παραδεχεται, "and chasteneth every son whom he receiveth;" and the apostle, Heb 12:6, quotes this literatim. Both clauses certainly amount to the same sense. Every son whom he receiveth, and the son in whom he delighteth, have very little difference of meaning.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. even as a father &c.] The LXX. (reading the same Heb. consonants with different vowels) renders this clause, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, which is followed in Heb_12:6.

The R.V., guided perhaps by the direct address, “My son,” Pro_3:11, begins the fresh paragraph there. The thought will then be: Wisdom has been commended to you by the happiness it brings (Pro_3:1-10); but if you have to suffer in the pursuit of it, be not discouraged (Pro_3:11-12); for it is worth the cost (Pro_3:13-20). The argument is in reality continuous, however the paragraphs are arranged.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth,.... This is a reason why the children of God should not despise corrections, nor be weary of them; since they spring from love, are given in love, nor is there any abatement of it in them: when the Lord chastens and corrects, he does not take away his lovingkindness from them; yea, it is because he loves them that therefore he thus deals with them; wherefore they ought to be patiently bore, and kindly taken by them;

even as a father the son in whom he delighteth; as a father chastens and corrects his son, whom he dearly loves, and has the greatest pleasure in, so the Lord chastens and corrects his people; see Deu 8:5. There is such a relation subsisting between them as that of father and son, which flows from the inexpressible love of God to them; and which is a love of complacency and delight in them, and is invariable and unchangeable, and continues the same under all their afflictions; as appears by what he does for them in them, and by the issue of them; he knows their souls in adversity, and chooses them in the furnace of affliction; he pays love visits to them, and comforts them under all their tribulation; he sympathizes with them, and supports them; he makes their bed in their affliction, and delivers out of it, or takes them to himself: the issue is always his own glory, and their good.

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

The first distinct utterance of a truth which has been so full of comfort to many thousands; it is the summing up of all controversies (compare Joh 9:2) as to the mystery of suffering. The apostle writing to the Hebrews can find no stronger comfort Heb 12:6 than this; the Church, in her visitation service, has no truer message for the sufferer.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And as. Septuagint, "but he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," as St. Paul quotes this passage, Hebrews xii. 6. The verb is now wanting in Hebrew, or ceab; "as a father" may signify "scourgeth, in piel, (Menochius) with i prefixed. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Afflictions are not infelicities, but benefits and comforts, because their are testimonies of God’s love, which is infinitely more desirable than any evil can be terrible. They show God’s purpose, and desire, and care to purge us from our sins, and to make us fit for his presence and kingdom. This and the former verse seem to be here inserted in the midst of his commendations of wisdom, to remove an objection against the excellency and happiness of wise or pious men, taken from those many calamities to which such persons are frequently exposed, the reason of which providence he here giveth.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In this verse the motive for submissiveness to Jehovah"s corrections is brought forward. They are corrections, but they are the corrections of love. One of the most touching relationships of life, and that with which we are most familiar, viz. that of father and son, is employed to reconcile us to Jehovah"s afflictive dispensations. A comparison is drawn. God corrects those whom he loves after the same manner as a father corrects ("correcteth" has to be understood from the first hemistich) the son whom he loves. The idea of the passage is evidently taken from Deu_8:5, "Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." The idea of the paternal relationship of God to mankind is found elsewhere, (Jer_31:9 Mal_2:10) and especially finds expression in the Lord"s prayer. When the truth of this passage is learned, we shall be drawn to, rather than repelled from, God by his corrections. The gracious end of earthly trials is expressed in Heb_12:6, Heb_12:2; cf. Rom_5:3-5 2Co_4:17 (Wardlaw). "These gracious words (Heb 12) are written in Holy Scripture for our comfort and instruction; that we should patiently and with thanksgiving bear our heavenly Father"s correction, whensoever by any manner of adversity it shall please his gracious goodness to visit us" (see Visitation Office). Even as a father the son in whom he delighteth ( vuk"av eth-ben yir"tseh); literally, even as a father the son be delighteth in. Various renderings have been given to this passage.

(1) Delitzsch, De Wette, et al., agree with the Authorized Version, and take w vav, as explicative, and yir"tseh, "in whom he delighteth," as a relative sentence. The w is used in this explanatory sense in 1Sa_28:3 (see Gesenius, 1 a). The relative usher, "whom," is omitted in the original, according to the rule that the relative is omitted, especially in poetry, where it would stand as a pronoun in the nominative or accusative case. (comp. Psa_7:16, "And he falls into the pit which he made;" and Pro_5:13) We have the same elision of the relative in the English colloquial expression, "the friend I met" (see Gesenius, a ).

(2) Hitzig and Zockler translate, "and holds him dear as a father his son." This, though grammatically correct, does not preserve the parallelism. It serves only to expand the idea of love, whereas the predominant idea of the verse is that of correction, to which love is an accessory idea (see Delitzsch). For similar parallels, see Deu_8:5 as before, and Psa_103:13. In the comparison which is instituted, yir"tseh, "in whom he delighteth," corresponds with eth asher ye"hav y"hovah, "whom the Lord loveth," and not with yokiah, "correcteth.

(3) Kamph translates, "and (dealeth) as a father (who) wisheth well to his son." This is substantially the same as the Authorized Version, except that in the relative sentence "son" is made accusative after yir"tseh, here translated, "wisheth well to," and the emitted relative (asher) is placed in the nominative instead of the accusative case.

(4) The variation in the LXX, mastigoi de panta uion on paradecetai , "and scourgeth every son whom he rcceiveth," cited literally in Heb_12:5, evidently arises from the translators having read baeky, (yakev ), "he scourgeth" for bakeW (vuk"av), "even as a father." It will be seen that this alteration could be easily effected by a change in the Masoretic pointing.

(5) The Vulgate renders, et quasi pater in filio complacet sibi. He delighteth; yir"tseh is from ratsah, "to be delighted" with any person or thing.

Vers. 11, 12. Patience in affliction.

Well does this lesson contrast with the preceding picture of prosperity and opulence.

I THE RELIGIOUS VIEW OF SUFFERING.

1. It is not a dark doom, a cruel fate, a Blind necessity of things. Such were the ideas of the heathen.

2. Its cause may be known. This is ever a great solace to be persuaded that our troubles lie in the reason of things, that nothing is chance or caprice.

3. That cause is in the Divine mind and will. The power of God is manifested in our suffering; we are but as the clay on the potter"s wheel. Still more the love of God is manifested in our suffering. There is always some mitigation accompanying it. "It might have been worse" may be said of every pain. It serves as the foil to set off some greater good. "The ring may be lost, but the finger remains," as the Spanish proverb says.

4. The object or final cause of suffering. Purification from inward evil; correction of faults. The mind grows of itself; the schoolmaster can do little more than point out and correct faults. So with life"s education from the religious point of view. And the most fertile minds need most; the discipline of suffering. The pruning knife is not applied to the puny plant; languid minds are the least touched by affliction. In these adjustments, love is still revealed.

5. Suffering must be viewed under the analogy of the parental and filial relation. Let these words once become clear, Father, son, in their application to God"s relation to us, and ours to him, and the theory of suffering is mastered. (comp. Deu_8:5 Psa_118:18 Lam_3:31-33)

II THE RELIGIOUS TEMPER UNDER SUFFERING.

1. Humility. No indignant questioning, scornful recalcitration, proud efforts of stoical fortitude. These will but defeat or delay the end. The medicine benefits not if the patient sets his mind against it as unneeded.

2. Patient endurance. Perseverance in a passive, receptive, attitude is far more difficult than perseverance in activity. We haste to snatch at good. But God is never in haste. His processes are slow. And to receive their benefit we must learn the wisdom of the word "wait." While we are thus waiting, things are not at a standstill; God is working, producing a spiritual shape out of the passive material. "Maker, remake, complete, I trust what thou shalt do! (R. Browning"s noble poem, "Rabbi Ben Ezra.") J.

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

as a father placates his son He desires to benefit his son and he placates him after striking him with the staff. So will the benefit be pleasant to you after the smiting.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.