Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, July 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

Bible in Basic English

Proverbs 6:20

My son, keep the rule of your father, and have in memory the teaching of your mother:

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Children;   Commandments;   Mother;   Word of God;   Young Men;   Thompson Chain Reference - Children;   Filial Obedience;   Obedience;   Parents;   Young People;   The Topic Concordance - Children;   Commandment;   Life;   Obedience;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Children;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Law;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Prayer;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Frontlets;   Solomon;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Child;   Education;   Father;   Relationships, Family;   Woman;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Education;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My son, keep your father’s command,and don’t reject your mother’s teaching.
Hebrew Names Version
My son, keep your father's mitzvah, And don't forsake your mother's teaching.
King James Version
My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
English Standard Version
My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.
New Century Version
My son, keep your father's commands, and don't forget your mother's teaching.
New English Translation
My child, guard the commands of your father and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.
Amplified Bible
My son, be guided by your father's [God-given] commandment (instruction) And do not reject the teaching of your mother;
New American Standard Bible
My son, comply with the commandment of your father, And do not ignore the teaching of your mother;
World English Bible
My son, keep your father's commandment, And don't forsake your mother's teaching.
Geneva Bible (1587)
My sonne, keepe thy fathers commandement, and forsake not thy mothers instruction.
Legacy Standard Bible
My son, observe the commandment of your fatherAnd do not abandon the law of your mother;
Berean Standard Bible
My son, keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
Contemporary English Version
Obey the teaching of your parents—
Complete Jewish Bible
My son, obey your father's command, and don't abandon your mother's teaching.
Darby Translation
My son, observe thy father's commandment, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;
Easy-to-Read Version
My son, remember your father's command, and don't forget your mother's teaching.
George Lamsa Translation
My son, keep your fathers commandment and do not forsake the law of your mother;
Good News Translation
Lexham English Bible
My child, keep the commandment of your father, and do not disregard the instruction of your mother.
Literal Translation
My son, keep your father's commands, and do not forsake the law of your mother.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
My sonne, kepe thy fathers comaundemetes, & forsake not ye lawe of thy mother.
American Standard Version
My son, keep the commandment of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother:
JPS Old Testament (1917)
My son, keep the commandment of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;
King James Version (1611)
My sonne, keepe thy fathers commandement, and forsake not the law of thy mother.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
My sonne, kepe thy fathers commaundement, and forsake not the lawe of thy mother:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
My son, keep the laws of thy father, and reject not the ordinances of thy mother:
English Revised Version
My son, keep the commandment of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Mi sone, kepe the comaundementis of thi fadir; and forsake not the lawe of thi modir.
Update Bible Version
My son, keep the commandment of your father, And don't forsake the law of your mother:
Webster's Bible Translation
My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
New King James Version
My son, keep your father's command, And do not forsake the law of your mother.
New Living Translation
My son, obey your father's commands, and don't neglect your mother's instruction.
New Life Bible
My son, keep the teaching of your father, and do not turn away from the teaching of your mother.
New Revised Standard
My child, keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Observe thou, my son, the commandment of thy father, and do not decline from the instruction of thy mother:
Douay-Rheims Bible
My son, keep the commandments of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.
Revised Standard Version
My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.
Young's Literal Translation
Keep, my son, the command of thy father, And leave not the law of thy mother.
THE MESSAGE
Good friend, follow your father's good advice; don't wander off from your mother's teachings. Wrap yourself in them from head to foot; wear them like a scarf around your neck. Wherever you walk, they'll guide you; whenever you rest, they'll guard you; when you wake up, they'll tell you what's next. For sound advice is a beacon, good teaching is a light, moral discipline is a life path.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
My son, observe the commandment of your father And do not forsake the teaching of your mother;

Contextual Overview

20 My son, keep the rule of your father, and have in memory the teaching of your mother: 21 Keep them ever folded in your heart, and have them hanging round your neck. 22 In your walking, it will be your guide; when you are sleeping, it will keep watch over you; when you are awake, it will have talk with you. 23 For the rule is a light, and the teaching a shining light; and the guiding words of training are the way of life. 24 They will keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the strange woman. 25 Let not your heart's desire go after her fair body; let not her eyes take you prisoner. 26 For a loose woman is looking for a cake of bread, but another man's wife goes after one's very life. 27 May a man take fire to his breast without burning his clothing? 28 Or may one go on lighted coals, and his feet not be burned? 29 So it is with him who goes in to his neighbour's wife; he who has anything to do with her will not go free from punishment.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Proverbs 1:8, Proverbs 1:9, Proverbs 7:1-4, Proverbs 23:22, Proverbs 30:11, Deuteronomy 21:18, Deuteronomy 27:16, Ephesians 6:1

Reciprocal: Genesis 18:19 - command Genesis 39:8 - refused Genesis 49:2 - hearken Exodus 13:9 - a sign Leviticus 19:3 - fear Deuteronomy 11:18 - ye lay up Psalms 119:9 - shall Psalms 119:24 - my counsellors Proverbs 4:1 - ye Proverbs 4:20 - General Proverbs 31:1 - his Jeremiah 35:8 - General 1 Corinthians 15:2 - keep in memory Colossians 3:20 - obey

Cross-References

Genesis 1:28
And God gave them his blessing and said to them, Be fertile and have increase, and make the earth full and be masters of it; be rulers over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing moving on the earth.
Genesis 2:19
And from the earth the Lord God made every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and took them to the man to see what names he would give them: and whatever name he gave to any living thing, that was its name.
Genesis 6:8
But Noah had grace in the eyes of God.
Genesis 6:11
And the earth was evil in God's eyes and full of violent ways.
Genesis 6:12
And God, looking on the earth, saw that it was evil: for the way of all flesh had become evil on the earth.
Genesis 6:16
You are to put a window in the ark, a cubit from the roof, and a door in the side of it, and you are to make it with a lower and second and third floors.
Genesis 6:20
Two of every sort of bird and cattle and of every sort of living thing which goes on the earth will you take with you to keep them from destruction.
John 5:40
And still you have no desire to come to me so that you may have life.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

My son, keep thy father's commandment,.... These are not the words of David to Solomon continued from Proverbs 4:4; but the words of Solomon to his son; and not to his son only, in a strict natural relation, but to everyone that came to him for and put himself under his instruction; and to everyone that stood in such a relation to a religious father; for not the divine Being, the Father of all, is here meant, according to some Jewish writers; though the commandment no doubt is the commandment of God taught by godly parents; or such a system of precepts that is founded upon and agrees unto the revealed will of God, and which being so should be laid up and kept in the heart, and not forgotten; and should be observed and attended to and obeyed throughout the whole course of life, as if it was the commandment of God himself; and indeed it is no other than that which pious parents train up their children in the knowledge of, instil into them, and urge upon them the observance of;

and forsake not the law of thy mother; the same as before, and which is mentioned to show that the same respect is to be had to a mother as to a father, the commandment and law of them being the same, and they standing in the same relation; which yet children are apt to make a difference in, and while they stand in awe of their father and his precepts, slight their mother and her directions, which ought not to be. Some understand this of the congregation of Israel, as some Jewish writers; and others of the church of God, the mother of us all.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 6:20. Keep thy father's commandment — See on Proverbs 1:8.


 
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