Proverbs 23:13-14·~1 min
Saying 13
Parents are told not to withhold discipline, because the child will not die from a rod rightly used but may instead be delivered from Sheol. Wisdom sees timely correction as rescue from greater destruction.
D13o not withhold discipline from a child; 14Strike him with a rod,
Section summaryThe thirteenth saying urges parental discipline by insisting that the rod, rightly used, rescues rather than destroys. It views correction not as cruelty but as a severe mercy aimed at sparing a child from deeper ruin.
Role in the chapterThis section functions as a defense of formative discipline. Its work is to frame correction as life-preserving rather than life-destroying.