Proverbs 22:6 - A Good Name (2024)

Verse (Click for Chapter)

New International Version
Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.New Living Translation
Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.English Standard Version
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.Berean Standard Bible
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.King James Bible
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.New King James Version
Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.New American Standard Bible
Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he grows older he will not abandon it.NASB 1995
Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.NASB 1977
Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.Legacy Standard Bible
Train up a child according to his way, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.Amplified Bible
Train up a child in the way he should go [teaching him to seek God’s wisdom and will for his abilities and talents], Even when he is old he will not depart from it.Christian Standard Bible
Start a youth out on his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it.Holman Christian Standard Bible
Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. American Standard Version
Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old he will not depart from it.Aramaic Bible in Plain English
He that reproves a boy concerning the beginning of his way, even if he becomes old, he will not turn away from it.Contemporary English Version
Teach your children right from wrong, and when they are grown they will still do right. Douay-Rheims Bible
It is a proverb: A young man according to his way, even when he is old he will not depart from it. English Revised Version
Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it.GOD'S WORD® Translation
Train a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not turn away from it.Good News Translation
Teach children how they should live, and they will remember it all their life. International Standard Version
Train a child in the way appropriate for him, and when he becomes older, he will not turn from it.JPS Tanakh 1917
Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old, he will not depart from it.Literal Standard Version
Give instruction to a youth about his way, | Even when he is old he does not turn from it.Majority Standard Bible
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.New American Bible
Train the young in the way they should go; even when old, they will not swerve from it. NET Bible
Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. New Revised Standard Version
Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.New Heart English Bible
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.Webster's Bible Translation
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.World English Bible
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Young's Literal Translation
Give instruction to a youth about his way, Even when he is old he turneth not from it.Additional Translations ...

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - Train up a child in the way he should go. The verb translated "train" (chanak) means, first, "to put something into the mouth," "to give to be tasted," as nurses give to infants food which they have masticated in order to prepare it for their nurslings; thence it comes to signify "to give elementary instruction," "to imbue," "to train." The Hebrew literally is, Initiate a child in accordance with his way. The Authorized Version, with which Ewald agrees, takes the maxim to mean that the child should be trained from the first in the right path - the path of obedience and religion. This is a very true and valuable rule, but it is not what the author intends. "His way" must mean one of two things - either his future calling and station, or his character and natural inclination and capacity. Delitzsch and Plumptre take the latter interpretation; Nowack and Bertheau the former, on the ground that derek is not used in the other sense suggested. But, as far as use is concerned, both explanations stand on much the same ground; and it seems more in conformity with the moralist's age and nation to see in the maxim an injunction to consider the child's nature, faculties, and temperament, in the education which is given to him. If, from his early years, a child is thus trained, when he is old, he will not depart from it. This way, this education in accordance with his idiosyncrasy, will bear fruit all his life long; it will become a second nature, and will never be obliterated. The Vulgate commences the verse with Proverbium est, taking the first word substantively, as if the author here cited a trite saying; but the rendering is a mistake. There are similar maxims, common at all times and in all countries. Virg., 'Georg.,' 2:272 -

"Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est." Horace, 'Epist.,' 1:2, 67 -

"Nunc adbibe puro
Pectore verba, puer." For, as he proceeds -

"Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem
Testa diu." Thus we have two mediaeval jingles - . . . Parallel Commentaries ...