Proverbs 19:18

Discipline your child, for ¹  there is hope, but do not set your heart ²  on causing his death. ³ 

Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death.

Discipline your son while there is hope, And do not desire his death.

Discipline your children while there is hope. If you don’t, you will ruin their lives.

Discipline your children while you still have the chance; indulging them destroys them.

Give your son training while there is hope; let not your heart be purposing his death.

Discipline your children while there is hope; do not set your heart on their destruction.

Chasten your son while there is hope, And do not set your heart on his destruction.

Discipline your child, for ¹  there is hope, but do not set your heart ²  on causing his death. ³ 

¹ tn The translation understands כִּי (ki) as causal. Some prefer to take כִּי as temporal and translate, “while there is hope” (so KJV, NASB, NCV, NRSV, NLT), meaning that discipline should be administered when the child is young and easily guided. In the causal reading of כִּי, the idea seems to be that children should be disciplined because change is possible due to their youth and the fact that they are not set in their ways.

² tn The expression “do not lift up your soul/life” to his death may mean (1) “do not set your heart” on his death (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), or it may mean (2) “do not be a willing partner” (cf. NIV). The parent is to discipline a child, but he is not to take it to the extreme and destroy or kill the child.

³ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct הֲמִיתוֹ (h^amito) means “taking it to heart” in this line. The traditional rendering was “and let not your soul spare for his crying.” This involved a different reading than “causing his death” (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 206-7).