to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
children
בָ֭נִיםVa.nim
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
instruction
מ֣וּסַרMu.sar
H4148
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
father
אָ֑ב'Av
H1
father · noun, common masculine singular absolute
attend
וְ֝הַקְשִׁ֗יבוּve.hak.Shi.vu
H7181
to prick up the ears · conjunction + verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
know
לָדַ֥עַתla.Da.'at
H3045
to know (properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
understanding
בִּינָֽהbi.Nah
H998
understanding · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
Psalms 34:11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Proverbs 1:8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
Proverbs 2:1-5 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
Proverbs 5:1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,
Proverbs 7:4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
Proverbs 19:20 Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 4:1-13
Here we have,
I. The invitation which Solomon gives to his children to come and receive instruction from him (Pro 4:1, Pro 4:2): Hear, you children, the instruction of a father. That is, 1. "Let my own children, in the first place, receive and give good heed to those instructions which I set down for the use of others also." Note, Magistrates and ministers, who are entrusted with the direction of larger societies, are concerned to take a more than ordinary care for the good instruction of their own families; from this duty their public work will by no means excuse them. This charity must begin at home, though it must not end there; for he that has not his children in subjection with all grav…
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father,.... Either of God their father, as Gersom interprets it; or rather of Solomon their father: and so he recommends his instruction from the relation he stood in to them; for, since he was their father, he would give them no bad instruction; and, since they were his children, they ought to receive it: by whom are meant, not his children in a natural sense, or the children of his body; but his disciples, such who applied to him for knowledge, and whom he undertook to learn;
and attend to know understanding; what would serve to enlighten, enlarge, improve, and inform their understandings; what would lead them into the knowledge and understanding of…
He now confirms and explains the command to duty which he has placed at the beginning of the whole (Pro 1:8). This he does by his own example, for he relates from the history of his own youth, to the circle of disciples by whom he sees himself surrounded, what good doctrine his parents had taught him regarding the way of life:
1 Hear, ye sons, the instruction of a father,
And attend that ye may gain understanding;
2 For I give to you good doctrine,
Forsake not my direction!
3 For I was a son to my father,
A tender and only (son) in the sight of my mother.
4 And he instructed me, and said to me:
"Let thine heart hold fast my words:
Observe my commandments and live!"
That בּנים in the address…
The Church Fathers
Listen, my sons, to the discipline of a father, etc. Here, about to exhort to philosophy, he explains how he himself was taught wisdom by his father.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "You, therefore, follow me." Let us follow him then, because that commandment has been passed down to us. The admonition originally given to the church at Corinth reaches to all Christians of all time in every place. For the apostle Paul was "a teacher of all nations in faith and truth."2As a matter of fact, we get the same sort of teaching from all the saints of old. Solomon, for example, used proverbs, saying, "Hear, my children, the instruction of a father and pay attention to get understanding, for I give you a good gift. Do not forsake my word, for I was an obedient son to my father, and beloved in the sight of my mother."
Indeed, many have lamented the weakness of human fragility, but among them, Job and David were particularly notable. The former, superior, direct, intense, and seemingly provoked by severe pains with a higher tragic quality; the latter, gentle, calm, and meek, with a milder emotion; so that, truly, we would imitate the heart of a deer that he set as an example for us to imitate. And do not be dismayed if I seem to preach to you in the likeness of a wild beast, when you read the statement to the apostles: Be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). However, even though such similarities are drawn with pious examples, and the nature of deer is innocent and gentle; I think that deer is proposed here as an imitation of the Prophet, about whom Solomon, the supporter of his father's mind, said in Proverbs: 'A deer of friendship, and a foal of thanks will converse with you' (Prov. 5:19).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Young Men · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Discourses in chs 1–9 often begin with the call to listen (cp. 1:8, 23; 2:1; 4:20-21; 5:1-2; 6:20-23; 7:1-3). • when your father corrects you: The children have reason to listen, because they have made mistakes.
Rashi on Proverbs 4:1
Children, hearken to the discipline of the Father The Holy One, blessed be He.
