19:20
The second line of this proverb gives the purpose or intended result of obeying the similar commands in the first line.
20a Listen to counsel and accept discipline,
20b that you may be wise the rest of your days.
19:20a
Listen to counsel: The word counsel refers here to someone’s recommendation or plan about what a person should do or how he should act.
and accept discipline: The command to accept discipline is similar. The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as discipline was also translated as “Discipline” in 19:18a. In that verse the focus was primarily on punishment. Here the word refers more generally to moral instruction or verbal correction.
Another way to translate these commands is:
Pay attention to advice and accept correction (Contemporary English Version)
In some languages, it may be more natural to use an “if” clause rather than a command. For example:
If you listen to advice and are willing to learn (Good News Translation)
19:20b
that: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as that indicates here the purpose or intended result of obeying the commands in 19:20a. In English, a phrase such as “in order that” or “so that” is often used to introduce this relationship. See the examples in the next note.
you may be wise the rest of your days: This phrase is literally “in your end.” It probably refers to a later period of time in the person’s life.
Some other ways to translate 19:20b are:
in order that you may be wise in the end (Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures)
-or-
that you may eventually become wise (New American Bible)
-or-
and in the end you will be wise (New International Version)
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