1 Chronicles 11:22 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lion like men of Moab… If we are to expect the virtues of the fathers repeated in the sons, what wonderful progress the ages ought to have seen? It is a marvellous fact that whatever a father may be able to bequeath to his children he is unable to give them the information which he himself has acquired. Every man must learn the alphabet for himself. Some degree of mental force maybe traceable to heredity, and unquestionably it is so; at the same time that mental force is to be exercised by its owner on quite independent grounds. We cannot live long on the reputation of our fathers. A curious law of recession seems to operate on the progress of mankind. The son of Aristotle is not Aristotle plus; he may indeed be Aristotle minus in an alarming degree, quite an indifferent figure, an incapable person, a living irony upon the greatness of the father to whom he belongs; yet in the next generation there may be a distinct advance, and even the original greatness may be transcended. We must never forget the responsibility of having a great father. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day. |
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