Proverbs 4:1

A Father’s Instruction

1 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.

Proverbs 4:1 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 4:1

Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father
Either of God their father, as Gersom interprets it; or rather of Solomon their father: and so he recommends his instruction from the relation he stood in to them; for, since he was their father, he would give them no bad instruction; and, since they were his children, they ought to receive it: by whom are meant, not his children in a natural sense, or the children of his body; but his disciples, such who applied to him for knowledge, and whom he undertook to learn; and attend to know understanding;
what would serve to enlighten, enlarge, improve, and inform their understandings; what would lead them into the knowledge and understanding of things divine and spiritual, and which would be worth knowing; and of having their understandings stored and enriched with.

Proverbs 4:1 In-Context

1 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.

2 For I give you sound teaching; do not abandon my directive.

3 When I was a son to my father, tender and the only child of my mother,

4 he taught me and said, “Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands and you will live.

5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn from them.