Parents is how Good News Translation translates hoi pateres (also Jerusalem Bible Bible de Jérusalem Traduction œcuménique de la Bible); all others have “fathers.” The plural of the word for “father” may be used in the sense of “parents” (see Heb 11.23); but the more common word for “parents” is used in verse 20, and it probably is true that in this verse it is the fathers who are being addressed, not both the fathers and the mothers.

In place of the vocative expression parents, it may be appropriate in some languages to use a qualifying clause, for example, “you who have children.”

Irritate translates erethizō “to provoke, nag, embitter, make resentful.” The situation envisaged seems to be that of the father constantly correcting and reprimanding the child for every little wrong or imagined wrong. It may be important to make more explicit the significance of irritate, for example, “to make your children bitter by always complaining about what they do” or “do not make your children angry by always criticizing them for everything they do.”

Discouraged translates a Greek word found only here in the NT; in this context, it means that the child feels that he can never do anything right and so gives up trying.

Discouraged may often be expressed idiomatically as “they will no longer have a heart,” “they will close their minds to everything,” or “they will hide inside of themselves.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .