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Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

23:13 beatest him with the rod. See note on Proverbs 13:24.


23:14 beat him with the rod. This verse does not imply child-beating in the modern sense of the word. The Hebrew word for “beat” is the same as used in II Kings 11:12 (“they clapped their hands”). Actually, it has a range of meanings, from “strike lightly” to “smite lethally,” depending on context. Similarly, the word for “rod” can mean anything from a flexible switch to a weapon of war. There is no doubt that this and a number of other passages prescribe reasonable corporal punishment for disobedient children—not administered in anger or revenge but in concern for developing character, and not applied in such a way as to cause real injury, yet stern enough to discourage future wrongdoing. Note Psalm 23:4—“thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”


23:14 deliver his soul. “Hell” is the Hebrew sheol, the prison of departed spirits in the heart of the earth. The “rod” can be merely a “switch.” Children must learn faith and obedience to godly parents before they will ever learn to have obedient faith in God.


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