Proverbs 22 · a question people ask
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (22:6). Is that a promise?
The saying has two halves. The first tells what to do: "Train up a child in the way he should go" (22:6) (tap Train up, child). The second says what follows: "and when he is old he will not depart from it" (22:6). Train up is chanakh, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "train up, dedicate"; this is the verb's only use in Proverbs. The verse doesn't say more about what training up involves or what the way is, and these notes don't use the Hebrew to decide what the saying promises. The introduction to Proverbs says Christians differ over how far sayings like this one are promises, and they read this one in two main ways. These notes choose neither. Both agree that children are to be taught, as the saying's first half says, and as the law and the letters say: "you shall teach them diligently to your children" (Deuteronomy 6:7), and "nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). These notes don't say what any family's story means. If this saying weighs on anyone whose child has turned away, make room to talk, and help them find someone they trust to talk to further, such as a pastor or a counselor.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A promise to rely on
Those who read it this way take the second half of the verse as a promise that goes with the first: a child trained up in the way he should go "will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). They note that the verse says when he is old, and so looks to the whole of a life, not to one season of it. They set it beside Paul's words (2 Timothy 1:1) to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:2), whose faith "lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice" (2 Timothy 1:5): "you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them" (2 Timothy 3:14), and "From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). On this reading the saying is a promise in God's word that those who teach a child may hold on to.
Proverbs 22:6 · 2 Timothy 1:1-2 · 2 Timothy 1:5 · 2 Timothy 3:14-15
A saying of what usually holds
Those who read it this way take the verse as a proverb: a saying of what training in the way tends to bring, not a guarantee for every child. They note that the book sets sayings side by side that pull different ways, each with its own reason (Proverbs 26:4-5), and holds both "the hand of the diligent brings wealth" (Proverbs 10:4) and "An abundance of food is in poor people’s fields, but injustice sweeps it away" (Proverbs 13:23). They note that the son in Proverbs is taught and can still refuse: "My son, if sinners entice you, don’t consent" (Proverbs 1:10), and chapter 5 warns a son that he may end up saying, "I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!" (Proverbs 5:13). On this reading the saying commends training as the wise path, and one who has been taught can still choose his own way.
Proverbs 26:4-5 · Proverbs 10:4 · Proverbs 13:23 · Proverbs 1:10 · Proverbs 5:11-13
The verses
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
“These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
“You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”