Proverbs 22:6
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
If a child is trained up in the right way, even when he is old he will not be turned away from it.
Webster's Revision
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
World English Bible
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Clarke's Proverbs 22:6 Bible Commentary
Train up a child in the way he should go - The Hebrew of this clause is curious: חנך לנער על פי דרכו chanoch lannaar al pi darco, "Initiate the child at the opening (the mouth) of his path." When he comes to the opening of the way of life, being able to walk alone, and to choose; stop at this entrance, and begin a series of instructions, how he is to conduct himself in every step he takes. Show him the duties, the dangers, and the blessings of the path; give him directions how to perform the duties, how to escape the dangers, and how to secure the blessings, which all lie before him. Fix these on his mind by daily inculcation, till their impression is become indelible; then lead him to practice by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, till each indelible impression becomes a strongly radicated habit. Beg incessantly the blessing of God on all this teaching and discipline; and then you have obeyed the injunction of the wisest of men. Nor is there any likelihood that such impressions shall ever be effaced, or that such habits shall ever be destroyed.
חנך chanac, which we translate train up or initiate, signifies also dedicate; and is often used for the consecrating any thing, house, or person, to the service of God. Dedicate, therefore, in the first instance, your child to God; and nurse, teach, and discipline him as God's child, whom he has intrusted to your care. These things observed, and illustrated by your own conduct, the child (you have God's word for it) will never depart from the path of life. Coverdale translates the passage thus: "Yf thou teachest a childe what waye he shoulde go, he shall not leave it when he is olde." Coverdale's Bible, for generally giving the true sense of a passage, and in elegant language for the time, has no equal in any of the translations which have followed since. Horace's maxim is nearly like that of Solomon: -
Fingit equum tenera docilem cervice magister
Ire viam, quam monstrat eques; venaticus, ex quo
Tempore cervinam pellem latravit in aula,
Militat in sylvis catulus. Nunc adbibe puro
Pectore verba, puer; nunc te melioribus ofter.
Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem
Testa diu.
Hor. Ep. lib. i., Ephesians 2, ver. 64.
"The docile colt is form'd with gentle skill
To move obedient to his rider's will.
In the loud hall the hound is taught to bay
The buckskin trail'd, then challenges his prey
continued...
Barnes's Proverbs 22:6 Bible Commentary
Train - Initiate, and so, educate.
The way he should go - Or, according to the tenor of his way, i. e., the path especially belonging to, especially fitted for, the individual's character. The proverb enjoins the closest possible study of each child's temperament and the adaptation of "his way of life" to that.
Wesley's Proverbs 22:6 Bible Commentary
22:6 Depart - Not easily and ordinarily.
