DISCIPLINING CHILDREN
Getting spanked is a good thing.
Throughout scripture, when the children of Israel did good in the sight of Yahweh, they were blessed. When they did evil they were punished. Sometime the punishment was even death.
Children get punished, men and women get punished, and even the nation gets punished.
Just as Yahweh God punishes us when we sin and do not follow His Way, God expects a father to punish his child when they are not being good little Israelites.
We are all supposed to follow The Way, and that means teaching our children The Way also.
Proverbs 3:12 For whom Yahweh loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
SPARE THE ROD SPOIL THE CHILD
Meaning
The notion that children will only flourish if chastised, physically or otherwise, for any wrongdoing.
Origin
This phrase has quite a long genesis. The coiner of the version that we use in everyday speech was Samuel Butler, in Hudibras, the satirical poem on the factions involved in the English Civil War, which was first published in 1662:
Love is a Boy,
by Poets styl'd,
Then Spare the Rod,
and spill the Child.
[by 'spill', Butler did mean spoil - that was an alternative spelling at the time]
The precise words were Butler's, but the proverbial notion is much older. William Langland's The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman, 1377, includes this line:
Who-so spareth ye sprynge, spilleth his children.
'Spilleth' is used to mean 'spoils', as in Butler's poem. 'Sprynge' was commonly used in medieval English to mean the verb 'spring', that is, 'rise quickly, at a bound'. It seems that Langland was using here as a synonym for 'sprig', that is, rod or offshoot of a plant, although the Old English Dictionary has no other records of 'sprynge' being used that way.
English version of the Bible pre-1377 don't include the line in the form we now use, but they do contain a similar thought, and this is probably where Butler took it from. In the KJV it reads:
Proverbs 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
Proverbs 19:18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.
Proverbs 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
Proverbs 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
29:16 When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: but the righteous shall see their fall.
29:17 Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.
29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
29:19 A servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understand he will not answer.
Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Prince.
Colossians 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
See also:
Word Studies menu – 'Chastised and Punished'
