Proverbs 13: Listen, learn and choose good friends | Bible study
A wise person listens when someone shows them they are wrong, is careful with words, works hard and picks wise friends. People who will not listen end up in trouble.
Proverbs 13:1
A wise child listens when Dad shows him he is wrong. A child who makes fun of everything will not listen, even to a telling-off.
A wise son takes his father's discipline,
The mark of a wise child is that a father's correction actually reaches him. Wisdom here is not what he already knows but his willingness to be shaped.
but a mocker does not listen to a sharp rebuke.
The scoffer is the opposite extreme. Even when the correction is raised to an outright scolding, it does not get through, because he treats all correction as something to sneer at.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled
Skilled at living. In this verse the skill consists in being teachable.
בן · ben · son
A son, and in Proverbs also the student addressed by the teacher. The word returns in verse 24.
מוסר · musar · discipline, correction
Training by correction. The chapter comes back to it in verses 18 and 24.
לץ · lets · mocker
The person who sneers at correction and so cannot be taught (Proverbs 9:7-8).
שמע · shama · hear and heed
To hear and act on it. With the negative it means the rebuke has no effect.
גערה · ge'arah · sharp rebuke
A scolding or stern reprimand, stronger than tokachat. The identical phrase, does not hear a rebuke, closes verse 8.
The first line has no verb in Hebrew. It reads 'a wise son, a father's discipline', and English versions supply a verb such as accepts or hears. The sense may also be that a wise son is the product of his father's discipline.
Proverbs 13:2
Good words bring good things back to the one who says them. But people who can't be trusted only want to hurt others.
From the fruit of his mouth a person eats what is good,
Speech is a crop that comes back to feed the speaker. Someone who speaks honestly and well lives off the good results.
but the appetite of the treacherous is for violence.
People who break faith hunger for something else entirely. What they crave, and what they end up feeding on, is harm done to others. One eats good from words; the other has an appetite only violence satisfies.
פרי · peri · fruit, produce
What something naturally yields. The same opening words are found in Proverbs 12:14.
פה · peh · mouth
The mouth as the source of speech. In this verse it is also, by the picture, what eats the result.
אכל · akal · eat
The Hebrew is simply eats. The picture is a meal, kept up by the word appetite in the next line.
טוב · tov · good
Good things, wellbeing. The word recurs in verses 15, 21 and 22.
נפש · nephesh · appetite, life
Originally the throat, and so hunger, desire, and the living self. This is the first of seven uses in the chapter.
בגד · boged · one who betrays
Someone who breaks faith with those who trusted him: a spouse, a friend, an ally. Returns in verse 15.
חמס · chamas · violence, wrong
Brutal wrong done to others. The word for the violence that filled the earth before the flood (Genesis 6:11).
Proverbs 13:3
Be careful what you say and you keep yourself safe. Blurt out whatever pops into your head and you will wreck things for yourself.
Whoever keeps watch over his mouth guards his life;
The mouth is treated like a city gate with a sentry. Control what goes out through it and you protect your whole self, since so much trouble starts with something said.
whoever opens his lips wide has ruin coming.
The opposite is the person who says whatever comes to mind: promises, secrets, insults, boasts. His unguarded talk brings his own collapse.
נצר · natsar · watch over, guard
To keep watch, as a watchman over a vineyard or city. The verb returns in verse 6.
פה · peh · mouth
The mouth of verse 2. There it fed him; here it must be guarded.
שמר · shamar · keep, guard
The common verb for keeping and guarding. Set beside natsar: guard the mouth and you have guarded the life.
נפש · nephesh · life, self
Here the person's very life. Since nephesh also means throat, the line has an edge: guard your mouth and you keep your neck.
פשק · pasaq · spread wide open
A rare and coarse verb for spreading wide, found elsewhere only in Ezekiel 16:25. It paints loose talk as indecent.
מחתה · mechittah · ruin, terror
A shattering, with the terror that goes with it.
Proverbs 13:4
A lazy person wants lots of things but gets nothing. A hard worker gets everything he needs.
The appetite of the lazy man craves, and there is nothing;
The lazy person is not short of wants. He wants as much as anyone, perhaps more, but wanting is all he does, so nothing comes of it.
but the appetite of the diligent is richly fed.
The diligent person's wants are met in full, because he works toward them. The difference between the two is not how much they desire but what they do about it.
נפש · nephesh · appetite, self
The appetite, the desiring self. The word stands in both lines.
עצל · atsel · sluggard
The sluggard, a regular figure in Proverbs (6:6-11; 26:13-16).
אוה · avah · long for, crave
To long for. The noun from this verb, ta'avah, is the desire of verses 12 and 19.
אין · ayin · there is none
The Hebrew is a single word: and nothing. The craving meets a blank.
חרוץ · charuts · sharp, diligent
From a root meaning to cut or decide. Keen, decisive workers.
דשן · dashen · be made fat
Literally to be made fat. Fatness was the picture of abundance and health in a land where hunger was common.
Proverbs 13:5
A person who does right hates lies. A bad person brings shame, like a bad smell, wherever he goes.
A righteous person hates a false word,
The righteous do more than avoid lying. They find falsehood repugnant, in their own mouths and in anyone else's.
but a wicked person makes a stench and brings disgrace.
The wicked person, who has no such hatred of lies, spreads a foul smell and shame wherever he goes. It falls on himself and on those connected with him.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right
The person who does right before God and deals fairly with others.
שנא · sane · hate
A strong word. Righteousness includes a settled revulsion, not just a rule against lying.
דבר שקר · devar sheqer · word of falsehood
Literally a word, or matter, of falsehood. It covers a spoken lie and any dishonest dealing.
רשע · rasha · one in the wrong
The guilty person, the regular opposite of the tsaddiq.
באש · ba'ash · stink
To stink, or cause a stink. Used of the fish dying in the Nile (Exodus 7:21) and of making oneself odious to others.
חפר · chapher · be ashamed, disgrace
To be abashed, or in this form to bring shame.
Proverbs 13:6
Doing right is like a guard that keeps an honest person safe. Doing wrong makes a bad person trip and fall.
Righteousness stands guard over the one whose way is whole,
Right living is pictured as a sentry. The person with nothing to hide has no weak point where trouble can get in: no lie to be exposed, no victim to come back at him.
but wickedness overturns the sinner.
Wickedness is also pictured as an actor, and what it does is trip up its own practitioner. The same conduct that was meant to gain an advantage is what brings him down.
צדקה · tsedaqah · righteousness
Right conduct toward God and people, here spoken of as if it were a person on watch.
נצר · natsar · watch over, guard
The verb of verse 3. There a person guards his mouth; here righteousness guards the person.
תם · tom · wholeness, integrity
Completeness. The Hebrew phrase is whole of way: a life that is all of one piece, the same in private as in public.
רשעה · rish'ah · wickedness
The conduct of the rasha, set against tsedaqah.
סלף · salaph · twist, overturn
To twist or subvert, and so to bring to ruin.
חטאת · chatta't · sin
The Hebrew is the abstract noun sin, used here for the person given over to it.
Proverbs 13:7
Some people act rich but have nothing at all. Others act poor but really have a lot.
One person acts rich and has nothing at all;
Some people live and spend as if wealthy while owning nothing. The display is a mask over emptiness.
another acts poor and has great wealth.
Others look as if they have little and are in fact very well off. Put together, the two lines are an observation with a warning in it: you cannot tell what a person has from how he presents himself.
יש · yesh · there is
A set opening for an observation from life: there is such a person. It introduces something the teacher has seen.
עשר · ashar · be rich
The verb to be rich in a reflexive form: he makes himself out to be rich.
אין כל · ein kol · not anything
Literally there is not anything. Complete lack.
רוש · rush · be poor
The verb to be poor in the same reflexive form: he makes himself out to be poor. The adjective rash in verse 8 is from this root.
הון רב · hon rav · much wealth
Hon is goods and property; rav is much. Hon returns in verse 11.
The Hebrew verb forms can mean 'pretends to be' or 'makes himself'. On the second reading the saying is about real states: one man enriches himself and ends with nothing of value, another makes himself poor, perhaps by giving, and has great wealth.
Proverbs 13:8
A rich person might have to pay money to save his life from bad men. Nobody bothers to scare a poor person like that.
A man's riches are the ransom for his life,
Wealth can buy a man out of danger: a kidnapper, an enemy, a lawsuit. But the line cuts both ways, because it is his wealth that made him a target in the first place.
but a poor man never hears a threat.
No one bothers to threaten or extort a man with nothing to take. Poverty has this one advantage, that it attracts no such attention. The saying deflates the idea that riches simply mean safety.
כפר · kopher · ransom price
A payment that buys a life back. From the root that also gives the word for atonement.
נפש · nephesh · life, self
Here the life that is under threat.
עשר · osher · riches
Riches. The noun from the verb used in verse 7.
רש · rash · poor, destitute
A person without means. From the same root as the verb in verse 7.
גערה · ge'arah · sharp rebuke, threat
The word of verse 1, and the same three Hebrew words end both verses. Here most take it as a threat or demand.
A kopher was a recognised payment in Israel's law by which a person whose life was forfeit could redeem it (Exodus 21:30). The saying extends the idea to any danger a rich man can pay his way out of.
The second line repeats the end of verse 1 exactly: 'does not hear a rebuke'. It may mean the poor man receives no threats, as taken here, or that the poor man, having nothing to lose, pays no attention to warnings.
Proverbs 13:9
The life of people who do right is like a light that shines bright and happy. The life of bad people is like a lamp that goes out.
The light of the righteous shines gladly,
Light stands for life, wellbeing and a future. The life of the righteous is pictured as a flame that burns bright and cheerful.
but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out.
The wicked have a small household lamp, and it goes dark. Their life and their line come to an end. One flame grows; the other dies.
אור · or · light
The light of day, a regular picture of life and joy.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right
Plural here: the righteous as a group.
שמח · samach · be glad
To rejoice. Said of a light, it pictures a flame burning merrily.
נר · ner · oil lamp
A small clay lamp. A weaker thing than the light of the first line.
דעך · da'ak · be extinguished
To go out, as a flame does when the oil is gone.
A house lamp was a shallow clay bowl of olive oil with a wick. It was kept burning through the night, so a lit lamp meant an occupied, living household and a dark one meant the family was gone. The same picture is used in Proverbs 24:20 and Job 18:5-6.
Proverbs 13:10
Thinking you know it all only starts fights. Wise people are the ones who take advice.
Arrogance produces nothing but quarrels,
Where people are fighting, look for pride. The person who is sure he is right and will not be told otherwise turns every disagreement into a contest.
but wisdom is with those who take advice.
The alternative to the know-it-all is the person who lets himself be advised. That openness is where wisdom is found, and by implication where peace is kept.
זדון · zadon · presumption, insolence
From a verb meaning to boil up. Pride that oversteps and will not be checked.
מצה · matstsah · quarrel, contention
A quarrel or struggle between people.
חכמה · chokmah · skill, wisdom
Skill at living. The line places it among people, in the exchange of advice, not in one confident head.
יעץ · ya'ats · advise, consult
The verb to advise in a form meaning to let oneself be advised or to consult together.
Proverbs 13:11
Money that comes quick and easy soon melts away. Money you save up bit by bit from hard work keeps growing.
Wealth got out of thin air shrinks,
Money that comes without real work behind it, by a scheme, a windfall or a fraud, does not stay. What came from nothing goes back to nothing.
but whoever gathers handful by handful makes it grow.
Slow accumulation by ordinary work is what actually builds wealth. The contrast is between speed and patience: the fast money vanishes, the gradual money increases.
הון · hon · wealth
Goods and property, as in verse 7.
הבל · hevel · breath, vapor
Literally from a breath. It is the key word of Ecclesiastes, something with no substance that is gone in a moment.
מעט · ma'at · become few
To grow small or few.
קבץ · qavats · collect, gather
To collect together, as a harvest or a flock is gathered.
על יד · al yad · by hand
Literally by hand, or upon the hand. It suggests both manual work and small amounts, a handful at a time.
רבה · ravah · multiply
To become many. The opposite of dwindles in the first line.
The old Greek translation read a similar-looking Hebrew word and took the first line as wealth got in haste. The traditional Hebrew text has 'from vapor', which is the reading NASB follows.
Proverbs 13:12
Waiting and waiting for something you hope for makes your heart feel sick. When you finally get it, it is like a tree that gives you life.
Hope dragged out makes the heart sick,
When something you are waiting for keeps being put off, the waiting itself wears you down. The saying describes a real inner illness, a loss of spirit.
but a longing that arrives is a tree of life.
When the thing hoped for finally comes, the effect is the reverse of sickness. It restores and feeds a person the way a life-giving tree would.
תוחלת · tochelet · expectation
From a verb meaning to wait. Hope as waiting for something expected.
משך · mashak · draw out, prolong
To pull or drag. The hope is stretched out longer and longer.
חלה · chalah · be sick, weak
The ordinary word for illness and weakness.
לב · lev · heart, mind
The inner person, where courage and will are kept.
תאוה · ta'avah · longing
The noun from the verb craves in verse 4. It opens verse 19 as well.
עץ חיים · ets chayyim · tree of life
The tree of Eden (Genesis 2:9). Proverbs uses it four times as a picture of what renews life: 3:18, 11:30, here, and 15:4.
Proverbs 13:13
If you laugh at good teaching, you will pay for it. If you respect what you are told to do, you will get a reward.
Whoever looks down on a word of instruction will pay for it,
The word is the teaching or command a person has been given. Treat it as beneath you and you become liable for the consequences.
but whoever respects a command will be repaid.
The one who takes a command seriously enough to be afraid of breaking it is paid back with good. Both lines use the language of debts and payment: contempt runs up a debt, respect earns a wage.
בוז · buz · hold in contempt
To look down on. The verb for what fools do to wisdom in Proverbs 1:7.
דבר · davar · word, matter
A word. Paired with command, it means instruction, whether a teacher's or God's.
חבל · chaval · be bound, ruined
The verb can mean to be ruined or to be held in pledge for a debt. Either way he is made to pay.
ירא · yare · fear, revere
The verb behind the fear of the LORD. To respect something enough to tremble at going against it.
מצוה · mitsvah · command
A command or order from one with authority.
שלם · shalam · be repaid
From the root of shalom. To be paid in full, made whole. The same verb is used in verse 21.
Proverbs 13:14
What wise people teach is like a spring of fresh water that keeps you alive. It shows you how to stay out of traps that could kill you.
The teaching of a wise person is a spring of life,
In a dry land a spring is the difference between living and dying. A wise person's instruction is that kind of source: it keeps giving, and those who draw on it live.
turning a person away from the snares of death.
This line says what the teaching does in practice. Life is full of hidden traps that kill, and instruction shows where they are so you can step around them.
תורה · torah · direction, instruction
From a root meaning to point the way. Here it is the instruction of a wise teacher.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled
The wise person, now as a teacher of others.
מקור · maqor · spring, source
A natural spring that flows of itself, unlike a cistern that only stores.
חיים · chayyim · life
Life in its fullness. Verse 12 had a tree of life; this verse has a spring of it.
סור · sur · turn away
To turn off a course. The same verb ends verse 19, where fools refuse to do it.
מוקש · moqesh · snare, bait trap
A trap set for birds or animals. Death is pictured as a hunter.
מות · mavet · death
Set directly against life in the first line.
Proverbs 14:27 is the same saying with one change: 'the fear of the LORD' stands in place of 'the teaching of a wise person'.
Proverbs 13:15
Good sense makes people like you and trust you. People who can't be trusted are on a road that ruins them.
Good sense wins favor,
A person who thinks and acts sensibly becomes well liked and trusted. Doors open for him.
but the road of the treacherous is hard going.
Those who break faith get the opposite: a road that does not ease. NASB takes the difficult last word to mean that their way is their own ruin. Either way, one man's path is smoothed by goodwill and the other's is not.
טוב · tov · good
Here describing the quality of the good sense.
שכל · sekel · good sense
Practical intelligence. The pair, favor and good sense, also appears together in Proverbs 3:4.
חן · chen · grace, favor
Favor, charm, acceptance in the eyes of others.
דרך · derek · road, way of life
A road, and so a way of living.
בגד · boged · one who betrays
The faith-breakers of verse 2.
The last Hebrew word normally means lasting or ever-flowing, which does not fit easily. Some take it as hard and unyielding. The old Greek translation read a different word meaning destruction, and NASB's 'their own disaster' is close to that.
Proverbs 13:16
A careful person finds out the facts before he does anything. A fool shows everyone how silly he is.
Every shrewd person acts out of knowledge,
The sensible person finds out the facts first and then acts on them. What he does is informed.
but a fool spreads his folly out for all to see.
The fool does not hide his lack of sense. He lays it out like a trader spreading goods on the ground, so that everyone can inspect it. One acts from what he knows; the other advertises what he does not.
ערום · arum · shrewd
The adjective from ormah (Proverbs 1:4): someone not easily fooled, who thinks before he acts.
דעת · da'at · knowledge
Knowledge of the matter in hand.
כסיל · kesil · dull fool
The thick, self-assured fool. He appears again in verses 19 and 20.
פרש · paras · spread out
To spread something out, as a cloth, a net or wares.
אולת · ivvelet · folly
Folly, from the root of evil, the stubborn fool.
Proverbs 13:17
Someone who carries a message but can't be trusted lands in trouble. A messenger you can trust helps mend things.
A wicked messenger falls into trouble,
A messenger who is dishonest or careless with what he was sent to do ends in disaster himself, and the saying implies he takes his sender's business down with him.
but a trustworthy envoy is healing.
A reliable go-between does the opposite of harm. He repairs relationships and calms situations simply by carrying the message faithfully.
מלאך · mal'ak · messenger
Someone sent with a message. The same word is used for an angel, a messenger of God.
נפל · naphal · fall
To fall. With slightly different vowels the same letters mean causes to fall, that is, plunges others into trouble.
רע · ra · bad, harm
The broad word for what is bad, here misfortune.
אמונים · emunim · trustworthiness
From the root of amen. An envoy of reliabilities: one who can be depended on in every part.
ציר · tsir · envoy
A different word from the first line: an envoy or ambassador sent on official business.
מרפא · marpe · healing, remedy
From rapha, to heal. Proverbs 12:18 says the same of the tongue of the wise.
With no post and few letters, kings, merchants and families depended on messengers who carried their words in person and spoke for them. A sender was entirely in the hands of the one he sent, which is why reliability was the whole of the job.
Proverbs 13:18
If you won't let anyone teach you, you will end up poor and ashamed. If you listen when you are told you are wrong, people will respect you.
Poverty and disgrace come to the one who throws off discipline,
Refusing to be corrected has a material cost and a social cost. The person who will not learn loses both his living and his good name.
but the one who holds on to reproof is honored.
The person who keeps and acts on criticism gains the respect the other loses. It is a paradox: accepting the humbling of correction is the way to honor.
ריש · resh · poverty
The noun from the same root as rash, the poor man of verse 8.
קלון · qalon · disgrace
Public disgrace, the opposite of honor.
פרע · para · let loose, throw off
To let go, to cast off restraint. The verb Wisdom uses of those who brushed aside her advice in Proverbs 1:25.
מוסר · musar · discipline, correction
The word of verse 1.
שמר · shamar · keep, guard
To keep or guard. He treats a reproof as something worth holding on to.
תוכחת · tokachat · correction, reproof
Correction that shows where you were wrong. A different word from the rebuke of verses 1 and 8.
כבד · kaved · be heavy, honored
Honor in Hebrew is weight. He becomes a person of weight in the community.
Proverbs 13:19
It feels sweet when a wish comes true. But fools hate to stop doing wrong.
A longing that comes true is sweet to the soul,
This repeats the thought of verse 12: there is real pleasure in a desire fulfilled. Everyone wants that sweetness.
but fools find it detestable to turn from evil.
Here is why fools never taste it. The fulfilment that satisfies comes by leaving evil behind, and that is the one thing they cannot stand to do. They want the sweetness without the turning.
תאוה · ta'avah · longing
The word of verse 12.
ערב · arav · be pleasant
To be pleasing or sweet.
נפש · nephesh · appetite, self
The desiring self, with its sense of throat and taste still felt beside the word sweet.
תועבה · to'evah · something detestable
Usually what God detests. Here it is turned around: what fools detest is giving up evil.
כסיל · kesil · dull fool
The self-assured fool of verse 16.
סור · sur · turn away
The verb of verse 14. Wise teaching turns a person from death's snares; fools refuse to turn.
רע · ra · bad, harmful
What is bad and does harm.
Proverbs 13:20
Walk with wise people and you will become wise. Hang around with fools and you will get hurt.
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
Character is caught from company. Spend your time alongside wise people and their way of thinking and acting becomes yours.
but whoever keeps company with fools comes to harm.
The same law works the other way. You might expect the line to say he becomes a fool; it goes past that to the result, which is that he gets hurt.
הלך · halak · walk, go
To walk. Walking with someone means sharing the road of life with them, a regular Hebrew way of speaking about conduct.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled
Plural: the wise as a group one can join.
חכם · chakam · become wise
The verb from the same root as the noun just before it. Wise company produces a wise person.
רעה · ra'ah · associate with
To keep company with, to be a companion of.
כסיל · kesil · dull fool
The fools of verses 16 and 19.
רעע · ra'a · be harmed
To be broken or come to harm. In Hebrew it sounds like the word for companion just before it: ro'eh, yeroa.
The Hebrew has a wordplay English cannot keep: the companion (ro'eh) of fools is harmed (yeroa). The written Hebrew text also allows the first line to be read as a command: walk with the wise and become wise.
Proverbs 13:21
Trouble chases people who do wrong. Good things come to people who do right.
Trouble hunts down sinners,
Misfortune is pictured as a pursuer on the heels of those who do wrong. They may run for a while, but it is after them.
but good is the reward that repays the righteous.
The righteous are also followed by something, but what catches up with them is good, paid out like a wage. Both lines say that conduct has consequences that find you.
רעה · ra'ah · evil, calamity
The noun covers both evil done and disaster suffered. The harm sinners do is the harm that chases them.
רדף · radaph · chase, pursue
To chase, as an army pursues a fleeing enemy.
חטא · chatta · habitual sinner
From a verb meaning to miss the mark. People for whom sin is a way of life.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right
Set against the sinners of the first line.
שלם · shalam · repay
To repay in full. The verb of verse 13.
טוב · tov · good
The Hebrew is simply good, the direct opposite of ra'ah in the first line.
Proverbs 13:22
A good person leaves something behind for his grandchildren. But the money a bad person saves up ends up going to people who do right.
A good person leaves an inheritance to his children's children,
The effect of a good life reaches two generations on. What he builds is stable enough to pass down and still be there for his grandchildren.
but the sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous.
The sinner piles up wealth too, but he cannot keep it in his family. In the end it passes to the kind of people he was not. He turns out to have been saving for someone else.
טוב · tov · good
Used as a noun: the good person, as in Proverbs 12:2.
נחל · nachal · give as inheritance
To cause someone to inherit. The word is tied to the family land that passed down in Israel.
בני בנים · benei banim · sons of sons
Literally sons of sons.
חיל · chayil · strength, wealth
Strength, and so resources and wealth. The same word describes the capable wife of Proverbs 12:4.
חוטא · chote · one who sins
From the same root as the sinners of verse 21.
צפן · tsaphan · hide away, store
To hide or treasure up. The sinner does the hoarding; another receives it.
In Israel land was meant to stay in the family and pass from father to sons, so an inheritance was the main way a household survived through time. To have nothing to hand on, or to have it go to outsiders, was a family's end.
Proverbs 13:23
A poor family's field can grow lots of food. But people who are not fair come and take it away.
The newly broken ground of the poor could yield plenty of food,
Even a poor family's small plot of fresh ground can produce a great deal. The land is not the problem, and neither is their willingness to work it.
but it is swept away for lack of justice.
What takes the harvest from them is injustice: someone with power cheats or seizes it. The saying is a rare admission in Proverbs that poverty is not always the fault of the poor.
אכל · okel · food
Food, from the verb to eat. The Hebrew is much food.
ניר · nir · freshly tilled ground
Ground broken up for the first time or after lying fallow. The word of Jeremiah 4:3 and Hosea 10:12.
רש · rash · poor, destitute
The poor of verse 8, plural here.
ספה · saphah · sweep away
To sweep or snatch away.
לא משפט · lo mishpat · no justice
Literally without justice. Mishpat is a right ruling; where there is none, the weak lose what they have.
The verse is terse and hard. The second line reads literally 'and there is what is swept away without justice', and it is not stated who or what is swept away. Most take it as the poor man's produce; some take it as the person himself.
Proverbs 13:24
A parent who never corrects a child is not really loving that child. A parent who loves their child is quick to show them when they are wrong.
Whoever holds back his rod hates his son,
A parent who will not correct a child may feel he is being kind. The saying calls it the opposite, because the uncorrected child is left to the ruin this chapter has been describing.
but whoever loves him is early and earnest with discipline.
Real love takes the trouble to correct, and does it promptly, before a fault hardens into character. The contrast is between an easy neglect that harms and a costly care that helps.
חשך · chasak · hold back, spare
To keep back or spare.
שבט · shevet · rod, staff
A stick or staff. The same word is the shepherd's rod of Psalm 23:4 and a ruler's scepter.
שנא · sane · hate
Deliberately shocking. The verse judges the parent by the effect on the child, not by the feeling.
אהב · ahav · love
Love shown in action.
מוסר · musar · discipline, correction
The noun of verses 1 and 18. The chapter began with a son receiving a father's musar and comes back to a father giving it.
שחר · shachar · seek early
A verb linked with the word for dawn: to seek early or eagerly. Literally, he seeks him early with discipline.
The rod was the ordinary tool of shepherds and of fathers and teachers across the ancient world. In Proverbs it stands for firm correction in general; the point of the saying is that a child must not be left uncorrected, and that correcting is an act of love.
Proverbs 13:25
People who do right have enough to eat and feel full. Bad people's tummies stay empty.
A righteous person eats until his appetite is satisfied,
The righteous person has enough. The promise is not luxury but sufficiency: he eats and is content.
but the belly of the wicked goes empty.
The wicked are left wanting. The chapter that began with the lazy man's craving ends with the wicked man's empty stomach: appetite without righteousness is never filled.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right
The last of the chapter's contrasts between the two kinds of people.
שבע · sova · fullness, satisfaction
Eating to the point of being full.
נפש · nephesh · appetite, self
The seventh and last use in the chapter. In verse 4 the lazy man's nephesh craved and got nothing; here the righteous man's is filled.