Proverbs 29

This second line is a guess. It more literally reads, “the upright seek them out.” Or maybe it’s the murderers who “seek the life of the upright.” The perplexing phrase is “seek them out.” It usually expresses a desire to kill someone. Such as the upright person possibly wanting to kill the murderer so the movie has a happy ending. But many scholars say in this instance it may mean the opposite—that good people want to protect the innocent. The meaning is unclear for the moment.

The Hebrew word referring to a spanking—often translated “rod”—can mean a switch, club, or staff, something you could bop a kid with. Some who argue against corporal punishment remind us that shepherds used a staff to gently nudge a straying sheep away from trouble. They didn’t club sheep like some parents wallop their rowdy kid in the candy aisle of the grocery store. People in Bible times—Jews and non-Jews alike—taught contact discipline, so to speak. We’re talking a spanking. Check out Proverbs 13:24, 19:18; 22:15; 23:13. The question for many parents of faith today is whether wise advice for farmers and herders 3,000 years ago is good advice today. Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings, some of which were picked up almost verbatim from earlier Egyptian wise sayings. With that in mind, many Bible teachers would argue this advice is best read as a snippet from history, not a rule intended for everyone everywhere until Jesus comes. Besides, they add, how many parents walloping kids in the candy aisle look loving—as opposed to looking like they’re leading the Charge of the Light Brigade. To which some parents would add that we really need to meet their kid.

The “plan from God” is more literally a vision revealed in a prophecy. In Old Testament times, prophecies were the way God communicated to his people, giving them direction, praise, and criticism. These prophecies affected their behavior much like the Bible does for people of faith today.

Scholars say this likely refers to a law in Leviticus 5:1. There, when a person hears a public announcement for them to appear in court if they know anything about a recent crime, they need to go and speak up. If they don’t, a divine condemnation or curse became the punishment for their silence. They had to live with that, for as long as God let them live. And they would always have to wonder, in fear, how long that would be.