Discovery BoxProverbs 23:15-16 
Context23:15 My child, 1 if your heart is wise,
then my heart also will be glad;
when your lips speak what is right. 3
Proverbs 23:24-25
Context23:24 The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly; 4
whoever fathers a wise child 5 will have joy in him.
23:25 May your father and your mother have joy;
may she who bore you rejoice. 6
1 tn Heb “my son,” although the context does not limit this exhortation to male children.
2 tn Heb “my kidneys”; in biblical Hebrew the term was used for the innermost being, the soul, the central location of the passions. Cf. NASB, NIV “my inmost being.”
3 sn This twelfth saying simply observes that children bring joy to their parents when they demonstrate wisdom. The quatrain is arranged in a chiastic structure (AB:B'A'): The first line (A) speaks of wisdom in the child, and it is paired with the last line (A') which speaks of the child’s saying what is right. In between these brackets are two lines (B and B') concerning joy to the parent.
4 tc The Qere reading has the imperfect יָגִיל (yagil) with the cognate accusative גִּיל (gil) which intensifies the meaning and the specific future of this verb.
5 tn The term “child” is supplied for the masculine singular adjective here.
6 tn The form תָגֵל (tagel) is clearly a short form and therefore a jussive (“may she…rejoice”); if this second verb is a jussive, then the parallel יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) should be a jussive also (“may your father and your mother have joy”).
