The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. The proverbs of Solomon - Some ancient MSS. of the Vulgate have Proverbiorum liber secundus, "The second book of the Proverbs." The preceding nine Chapter s can only be considered as an introduction, if indeed they may be said to make even a part, of the proverbs of Solomon, which appear to commence only at the tenth chapter.
A wise son maketh a glad father - The parallels in this and several of the succeeding Chapter s are those which Bishop Lowth calls the antithetic; when two lines correspond with each other by an opposition of terms and sentiments; when the second is contrasted with the first; sometimes in expression, sometimes in sense only. Accordingly the degrees of antithesis are various; from an exact contraposition of word to word, through a whole sentence, down to a general disparity, with something of a contrariety in the two propositions, as: -
A wise son rejoiceth in his father.
But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.
Where every word has its opposite; for the terms father and mother are, as the logicians say, relatively opposite.