Obediência aos pais

12 Honor your father and mother so that you’ll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

16 Respect your father and mother—God, your God, commands it! You’ll have a long life; the land that God is giving you will treat you well.

3-9 But Jesus put it right back on them. "Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God’s commands? God clearly says, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel around that by saying, ‘Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I’ve given to God.’ That can hardly be called respecting a parent. You cancel God’s command by your rules. Frauds! Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye:

These people make a big show of saying the right thing,

but their heart isn’t in it.

They act like they’re worshiping me,

but they don’t mean it.

They just use me as a cover

for teaching whatever suits their fancy."

1-3 Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only right. "Honor your father and mother" is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely, "so you will live well and have a long life."

4 Fathers, don’t frustrate your children with no-win scenarios. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.

20 Children, do what your parents tell you. This delights the Master no end.

8-19 Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you;

never forget what you learned at your mother’s knee.

Wear their counsel like a winning crown,

like rings on your fingers.

Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you,

don’t go along with them.

If they say—"Let’s go out and raise some hell.

Let’s beat up some old man, mug some old woman.

Let’s pick them clean

and get them ready for their funerals.

We’ll load up on top-quality loot.

We’ll haul it home by the truckload.

Join us for the time of your life!

With us, it’s share and share alike!"—

Oh, friend, don’t give them a second look;

don’t listen to them for a minute.

They’re racing to a very bad end,

hurrying to ruin everything they lay hands on.

Nobody robs a bank

with everyone watching,

Yet that’s what these people are doing—

they’re doing themselves in.

When you grab all you can get, that’s what happens:

the more you get, the less you are.

Warning on Adultery

20-23 Good friend, follow your father’s good advice;

don’t wander off from your mother’s teachings.

Wrap yourself in them from head to foot;

wear them like a scarf around your neck.

Wherever you walk, they’ll guide you;

whenever you rest, they’ll guard you;

when you wake up, they’ll tell you what’s next.

For sound advice is a beacon,

good teaching is a light,

moral discipline is a life path.

Your Life Is at Stake

1,2 Listen, friends, to some fatherly advice;

sit up and take notice so you’ll know how to live.

I’m giving you good counsel;

don’t let it go in one ear and out the other.

3-9 When I was a boy at my father’s knee,

the pride and joy of my mother,

He would sit me down and drill me:

"Take this to heart. Do what I tell you—live!

Sell everything and buy Wisdom! Forage for Understanding!

Don’t forget one word! Don’t deviate an inch!

Never walk away from Wisdom—she guards your life;

love her—she keeps her eye on you.

Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom!

Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!

Throw your arms around her—believe me, you won’t regret it;

never let her go—she’ll make your life glorious.

She’ll garland your life with grace,

she’ll festoon your days with beauty."

Walk with the Wise

1 Intelligent children listen to their parents;

foolish children do their own thing.

6 Point your kids in the right direction—

when they’re old they won’t be lost.

15 Wise discipline imparts wisdom;

spoiled adolescents embarrass their parents.

26 Kids who lash out against their parents

are an embarrassment and disgrace.

17 An eye that disdains a father

and despises a mother—

that eye will be plucked out by wild vultures

and consumed by young eagles.

15 "If someone hits father or mother, the penalty is death.

18-20 When a man has a stubborn son, a real rebel who won’t do a thing his mother and father tell him, and even though they discipline him he still won’t obey, his father and mother shall forcibly bring him before the leaders at the city gate and say to the city fathers, "This son of ours is a stubborn rebel; he won’t listen to a thing we say. He’s a glutton and a drunk."

21 Then all the men of the town are to throw rocks at him until he’s dead. You will have purged the evil pollution from among you. All Israel will hear what’s happened and be in awe.

* * *

20 Anyone who curses father and mother

extinguishes light and exists benighted.

4-11 In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,

but don’t be crushed by it either.

It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;

the child he embraces, he also corrects.

God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off big-time, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

3-8 Take care of widows who are destitute. If a widow has family members to take care of her, let them learn that religion begins at their own doorstep and that they should pay back with gratitude some of what they have received. This pleases God immensely. You can tell a legitimate widow by the way she has put all her hope in God, praying to him constantly for the needs of others as well as her own. But a widow who exploits people’s emotions and pocketbooks—well, there’s nothing to her. Tell these things to the people so that they will do the right thing in their extended family. Anyone who neglects to care for family members in need repudiates the faith. That’s worse than refusing to believe in the first place.