(S. -f the Word of God,) our Lord Jesus the Christ, as also Jeremiah saw
the rod of an almond-tree. Every one who spareth to speak a word Jer. i. 11
of reproof to his son hateth his son. (S. + Therefore teach your sons
the word of the Lord.) Therefore chasten them with blows, and do not
spare' on account of their youth, by the word of the fear of God, and do
not give them the power of rising against you, and against their parents ;
and let them do nothing without your advice ; that they go not with those
of their age to assemble and amuse themselves ; because thus they learn
vanity, and are laid hold of by harlotry and fall. Should this happen
without their parents, they and their parents will be themselves guilty
in the judgment before God. If again by your permission they are without
correction, and you, their parents, sin, ye shall be held guilty on their
account before God. Therefore be zealous that in their time ye take
wives for them ; and marry them, lest in their youth, in the fire of their
adolescence, they commit fornication like the heathen, and ye shall give
answer to God in the day of judgment.