Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Sometimes people write things that deserve to be repeated...

This is something a friend of mine posted in a group on Facebook on July 5, 2013...and the copied text has been sitting in a document on my desktop since then. This is how I roll :)

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SHEILA STUBBS WROTE:
Yesterday I did a bit of study on Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it." The verse contains only 6 words, which takes 21 English words to describe.

TRAIN UP = dedicate, initiate, commence using, instruct, train up imbue [imbue means to inspire or influence thoroughly]. The root pictures a narrowing/neck, or the jaw, also to put something in the mouth, metaphorically: tasting.

KJV translates it elsewhere 4 X as "dedicate" and only this one time as "train up".

A CHILD = boy, lad, servant, youth. Usually used to refer to a child, though used in this verse about baby Moses: "And when she had opened [it], she saw the child [child/son/boy/offspring/youth] and, behold, the babe [boy/lad/servant/youth] wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This [is one] of the Hebrew children. [child/son/boy/offspring/youth]

IN THE WAY = way, road, distance, journey, manner.

HE SHOULD GO = mouth. The word portrays a sense of blowing, breathing, an opening. Translated elsewhere as commandment, edge, according.

AND WHEN HE IS OLD = to be old, to become old – "like an old man with his chin hanging down"

HE WILL NOT DEPART FROM IT = turn aside, depart, cause to depart, withdraw


COMMENTS:

Sheila Stubbs
I was fascinated by the translation of the word "mouth" to "he should go". To me it's saying "Influence a boy’s journey from his first breath and in old age he won’t withdraw." Which is quite the complete opposite of the Pearl's message.

Sheila Stubbs
Point your kids in the right direction—
when they’re old they won’t be lost. ~ The Message bible

Dara Stoltzfus
This is so typical of problems with English Bibles translated by Westerners who ALREADY believe certain things about the Bible. Like, the translating committees already believe certain things about God and the Bible so when they get to these parts to translate their minds are already clouded and instead of translating the actual words they just put what they already think it says...

Just a few of the things you point out here like what if all Christians instead of approaching their kids with this attitude of "training" them...lived with the mindset of the word INSPIRE. What if parents believed they were to INSPIRE their children? And, then the word "mouth" for "he should go" There's just so much there that changes the way that verse has always been looked at and makes it so much deeper and beautiful.

And, what a world? What if all Christian parents raised their sons from their first breath in such a way as to INSPIRE them to not want to deviate from God? What if all the husbands there...all the fathers...had been INSPIRED to follow God/LOVE from their 1st breaths?"

Check out Sheila's blog about "Babywise" by Gary Ezzo...
UNBECOMING BABY LIES