Matthew Henry on Proverbs 23:19-28
Here is good advice for parents to give to their children; words are put into their mouths, that they may train them up in the way they should go. Here we have,
I. An earnest call to young people to attend to the advice of their godly parents, not only to this that is here given, but to all other profitable instructions: "Here, my son, and be wise, Pro 23:19. This will be an evidence that thou art wise and a means to make thee wiser." Wisdom, as faith, comes by hearing. And again (Pro 23:22): "Hearken unto thy father who begot thee, and who therefore has an authority over thee and an affection for thee, and, thou mayest be sure, can have no other design than thy own good." We ought to give r…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 23:22
Hearken--that is, obey (Pro 1:8; Eph 6:1).
despise . . . old--Adults revere the parents whom, as children, they once obeyed.
John Gill on Proverbs 23:22
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee,.... And who has a true and hearty affection for thee, and whatever he says is for thy good and welfare, which he studies and has at heart; and who therefore also has an authority over thee, and what he enjoins ought to be strictly regarded; and, having lived longer in the world, must be thought to have a larger experience and knowledge of things, and therefore should be hearkened unto;
and despise not thy mother when she is old; despise not her counsels, instructions, and advice, though she is old; and because she is so, do not reject them as old wives' fables, or as the silly talk of an old woman, as young men are too apt to do.
Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 23:22-25
The parainesis begins anew, and the division is open to question. Pro 23:22-24 can of themselves be independent distichs; but this is not the case with Pro 23:25, which, in the resumption of the address and in expression, leans back on Pro 23:22. The author of this appendix may have met with Pro 23:23 and Pro 23:24 (although here also his style, as conformed to that of Pro 1:9, is noticeable, cf. 23b with Pro 1:2), but Pro 23:22 and Pro 23:25 are the form which he has given to them.
Thus Pro 23:22-25 are a whole: -
22 Hearken to thy father, to him who hath begotten thee,
And despise not thy mother when she has grown old.
23 Buy the truth, and sell it not,
Wisdom and discipline and understan…
