Proverbs 19:27

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

Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

Cease listening, my son, to discipline, And you will stray from the words of knowledge.

If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you have turned your back on knowledge.

If you quit listening, dear child, and strike off on your own, you'll soon be out of your depth.

A son who no longer gives attention to teaching is turned away from the words of knowledge.

Cease straying, my child, from the words of knowledge, in order that you may hear instruction.

Cease listening to instruction, my son, And you will stray from the words of knowledge.

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

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.”