Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Train up (literally, initiate: dedicate, as a house, Numbers 7:10-11 ; or temple 1 Kings 8:63 : Hebrew, chanak) a child in (Hebrew, according to) the way he should go (Hebrew, his way); and when he is old, he will not depart from it. The child is to be initiated in the way of life from the earliest dawn of intelligence (2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:15; Deuteronomy 6:7). Children understand more than they can express. As a temple newly built, and not yet profaned, is solemnly set apart to the Lord, so a child, by pious training, is dedicated as a temple of the Holy Spirit (cf. Hannah's dedication of Samuel, 1 Samuel 1:28). For "train up," the margin is 'catechize.' The Hebrew for 'catechize.' The Hebrew for 'catechism' was taken from this verb, ceeper (H5612) chinuk (H2593) (margin, Genesis 14:14). In order to train a child aright we must ask God, "How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?" (Judges 13:12) "In" - Hebrew х `al (H5921) piy (H6310)]. 'upon the mouth of his way' - i:e., not as Mercer and Maurer, 'in proportion to the capacity of his understanding;' but as the English version, "in the way he should go;" not in the way he would go; perhaps with the additional idea that this is to be done at the mouth or opening of his way; from the first opening of reason. The Hebrew is, however, often used simply for according to (Genesis 43:7. margin: Leviticus 27:18; Numbers 26:56). "From it" - i:e., from the training (Mercer); from the way he should go, in the English version, Childhood is pliable; maturity is hard and unimpressible. The seed sown in childhood may seem lost for a time, but if it have been sown in faith, it will develop itself "when he is old." Timothy, taught in Scripture as a child, was not fully converted until he was a man (1 Timothy 1:2). The seed is to be sown in youth; the harvest is not to be expected until manhood.