Discovery BoxProverbs 23:22-25 
Context23:22 Listen to your father who begot you,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23:23 Acquire 1 truth and do not sell it –
wisdom, and discipline, and understanding.
23:24 The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly; 2
whoever fathers a wise child 3 will have joy in him.
23:25 May your father and your mother have joy;
may she who bore you rejoice. 4
1 tn Heb “buy” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT); CEV “Invest in truth.”
sn The sixteenth saying is an instruction to buy/acquire the kind of life that pleases God and brings joy to parents. “Getting truth” would mean getting training in the truth, and getting wisdom and understanding would mean developing the perception and practical knowledge of the truth.
2 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.
3 tn The term “child” is supplied for the masculine singular adjective here.
4 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”).
