Proverbs 19:27

If you stop listening to ¹  instruction, my child, you will stray ²  from the words of knowledge.

De 13:1-4; 1Ki 22:22-28; Pr 14:7; Mt 7:15; Mt 16:6,12; Mr 4:24; Mr 7:6-14; Joh 10:5; 2Co 11:13-15; Eph 4:14; 1Ti 4:7; 1Ti 6:3-5; 2Pe 2:1,2; 1Jo 4:1; 2Jo 1:10; Re 2:2

¹ tn Heb “Stop listening…!” The infinitive construct לִשְׁמֹעַ (lishmoa’) functions as the direct object of the imperative: “stop heeding [or, listening to].” Of course in this proverb which shows the consequences of doing so, this is irony. The sage is instructing not to stop. The conditional protasis construction does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation.

² tn The second line has an infinitive construct לִשְׁגוֹת (lishgot), meaning “to stray; to go astray; to err.” It indicates the result of the instruction – stop listening, and as a result you will go astray. The LXX took it differently: “A son who ceases to attend to discipline is likely to stray from words of knowledge.” RSV sees the final clause as the purpose of the instructions to be avoided: “do not listen to instructions to err.”