Proverbs 23:14

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) And shalt deliver his soul from hell—i.e., Hades, the abode of the dead (Isaiah 14:9), death being the punishment of sin, and long life the reward of well-doing (Proverbs 3:2).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:12-16 Here is a parent instructing his child to give his mind to the Scriptures. Here is a parent correcting his child: accompanied with prayer, and blessed of God, it may prove a means of preventing his destruction. Here is a parent encouraging his child, telling him what would be for his good. And what a comfort it would be, if herein he answered his expectation! 17,18. The believer's expectation shall not be disappointed; the end of his trials, and of the sinner's prosperity, is at hand.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hell - Sheol, the world of the dead.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13, 14. While there is little danger that the use of the "divine ordinance of the rod" will produce bodily harm, there is great hope of spiritual good.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou shall beat him with the rod,.... Or, correct him with the stripes of the children of men, in a moderate and suitable manner, proportionable to the fault committed; and as he is able to bear it, both as to body and mind;

and shalt deliver his soul from hell; be a means of preventing those sins which would bring to hell and destruction; and of bringing to repentance for those committed; and so of saving his soul, which should be the chief thing parents should have in view in chastising their children; the salvation of whose souls should be dear unto them, as it is to all truly gracious and thoughtful ones.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from {g} hell.

(g) That is, from destruction.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Shalt deliver his soul from hell (sheol); de inferno, Vulgate; ἐκ θανάτου, Septuagint. Premature death was regarded as a punishment of sin, as long life was the reward of righteousness. Proper discipline preserves a youth not only from many material dangers incident to unbridled passions, but saves him from spiritual death, the decay and destruction of grace here, and the retribution that awaits the sinner in another world (comp. Ecclus, 30:1-12). Proverbs 23:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

13 Withhold not correction from the child;

     For thou will beat him with the rod, and he will not die.

14 Thou beatest him with the rod,

     And with it deliverest his soul from hell.

The exhortation, 13a, presupposes that education by word and deed is a duty devolving on the father and the teacher with regard to the child. In 13b, כּי is in any case the relative conjunction. The conclusion does not mean: so will he not fall under death (destruction), as Luther also would have it, after Deuteronomy 19:21, for this thought certainly follows Proverbs 23:14; nor after Proverbs 19:18 : so may the stroke not be one whereof he dies, for then the author ought to have written אל־תּמיתנּוּ; but: he will not die of it, i.e., only strike if he has deserved it, thou needest not fear; the bitter medicine will be beneficial to him, not deadly. The אתּה standing before the double clause, Proverbs 23:14, means that he who administers corporal chastisement to the child, saves him spiritually; for שׁאול does not refer to death in general, but to death falling upon a man before his time, and in his sins, vid., Proverbs 15:24, cf. Proverbs 8:26.