And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Ver. 4. Provoke not, &c.] God forbids bitterness and austerity in husbands, Colossians 3:19; masters,Colossians 4:1; parents here, and Colossians 3:21. Superiors must so carry themselves as to be at once loved and feared.
But bring them up in the nurture, &c.] Or, nourish them and nurture them. The latter is as needful as the former. They that nourish their children only, what do they more than the unreasonable creatures? The blessing upon posterity is entailed to piety in the second commandment. If I may see grace in my wife and children, said reverend Claviger, Satis habeo, satisque mihi, meae uxori, filiis et filiabus prospexi, I shall account them sufficiently cared for. (Selneccer.) Let parents labour to mend that by education that they have marred by propagation; for else they are Peremptores potius quam parentes, parricides rather than parents, and shall dearly answer for their poor children, which like Moses in the bed of flags, are ready to perish if they have not help. Nurture is a great help to nature; and some sons hononr not their fathers, because, as Eli, they honoured their sons, that is, they corrected not, but cockered them,1 Samuel 2:29; 1 Kings 1:5,6 .