What Does Proverbs 3:11 Mean in the King James?
My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse holds discipline and reproof inside the language of a relationship: correction does not mean the bond has disappeared.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s discipline meets you as instruction within relationship, even when it is hard to receive. The verse names contempt and exhaustion as two ways correction can feel like something to shut out.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Painful correction does not, by itself, prove that you are rejected or that the correction has nothing to offer.
THE ROOT
מוּסָר
musar
GROWS FROM
י־ס־ר
To discipline, instruct, or chastise.
“Chastening” can sound like pain alone, but musar also means instruction or discipline: the root holds correction and formation together. The words “my son” place that difficult correction within a relationship.
ALSO GROWS
yāsar: To discipline, instruct, or chastise.
יָסַר
The verb makes clear that musar is an active process of correction, not only a painful event.
yissurim: Discipline or chastisements.
יִסּוּרִים
This related form shows the same root carrying the experience of correction as well as the act of giving it.
תּוֹכַחַת
tokhachat
GROWS FROM
י־כ־ח
To decide, prove, or reprove.
Tokhachat is reproof that brings something under scrutiny. Beside musar, it describes correction that both forms and confronts.
ALSO GROWS
yāḵaḥ: To decide, prove, or reprove.
יָכַח
The verb behind tokhachat links correction with making a matter clear or bringing it into judgment.
môḵîaḥ: One who reproves or corrects.
מוֹכִיחַ
This related form shows the same root describing the person who gives reproof.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents correction as formative work within a relationship, rather than proof that the relationship is gone.
Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.THE THREAD
Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.The verb translated “chasteneth” is יְיַסְּרֶנּוּ (yeyasserennu, “disciplines him”), from the same י־ס־ר (y-s-r; yasar) root as מוּסָר (musar, “discipline”) in Proverbs. The shared root makes the father-son image part of the word’s own texture: correction belongs to the language of formation, not only punishment.
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