Proverbs 22: Train Up a Child

"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all" (22:1–2).

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender" (22:6–7).

"Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge… Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth?" (22:17–21).

"Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: for the LORD will plead their cause… Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set. Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings" (22:22–29).

The Instruction of Amenemope

Amenemope is an Egyptian wisdom text in thirty chapters, best preserved on British Museum papyrus EA 10474 and known from other copies, usually dated to the Ramesside period (c. 1300–1075 BC). After it was published in 1923, Adolf Erman (1924) showed its close relation to Proverbs 22:17–23:11. Most scholars think the Hebrew teacher adapted Amenemope (directly or through an intermediate version), changing the gods to the LORD; a minority argue for a common source or the reverse direction. The parallels below are from Lichtheim's translation (C check against the Egyptian).

22:6: train up a child

Chanokh lanna'ar al pi darko: "Dedicate (train) a youth according to his way." "His way" can mean (1) the way he should go (KJV): the right way of life; (2) his own way, his nature and aptitude: train each child according to his temperament; (3) ironically, "his way," what he wants: let a child have his own way and he will never leave it (a warning). The verb chanakh means to dedicate (a house or temple, Deuteronomy 20:5; 1 Kings 8:63; hence Chanukah). The library's Greek has no equivalent of this verse at all: its 22:6 corresponds to Hebrew 22:7. The Old Greek is reported to lack 22:6 (C check against Rahlfs); the verse is present in the Hebrew and the Vulgate. The saying is a general truth about early formation, not a promise that every well-raised child will remain faithful; Ezekiel 18 and many biblical families show otherwise. See the passage page.

22:7 and credit

"The borrower is servant to the lender" describes the power of debt in an agrarian world where failure to repay could mean losing land or becoming a debt-slave (2 Kings 4:1; Nehemiah 5:1–5). Torah limited this power (interest-free loans to the poor, Exodus 22:25; release of debts, Deuteronomy 15). The proverb is an observation, not a condemnation of people who borrow, and it does not describe modern banking.

22:8 and 2 Corinthians 9:7

The library's Greek adds a line to 22:8: "God blesses a cheerful and generous man" (Giguet; it stands in the file's 22:7, because the Greek has no verse corresponding to Hebrew 22:6). Paul quotes it in a slightly different form: "God loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). This is a New Testament quotation of a line found only in the Greek Proverbs.

A new collection and its date

22:17–24:22 is the "words of the wise"; 24:23–34 is a short appendix ("These things also belong to the wise"). The use of Amenemope shows contact between Israelite and Egyptian scribal education, which most scholars place in the monarchy (perhaps the 10th–7th centuries BC). See the investigation The Egyptian Scroll Behind the Hebrew Sayings (final release).