That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Ver. 4. To be sober] Or wise, teaching them as schoolmasters do their disciples; so the word σωφρονιζωσι signifies. He was a foolish man that said, Μισω σοφην γυναικα, I love not to have a woman wise. (Eurip.) "A prudent wife is of the Lord." Such a one was Abigail, and Aspasia, Milesia, the wife of Cyrus, who was said to be Καλη και σοφη, fair and wise also. (Aelian. xii. 1.) To love their husbands, though old and less lovely, as that famous Valadaura in Ludovicus Vives.
To love their children] And to seal up their love, not by hugging them to death, as apes do their young; but by educating them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, as Bathsheba, Proverbs 31:1. Plutarch speaks of a Spartan woman, that when her neighbours were showing their apparel and jewels, she brought out her children, virtuous and well taught, and said, These are my ornaments and jewels. Mothers must learn to love their children's souls,1 Peter 3:4 .