Translation commentary on Proverbs 15:20

“A wise son makes a glad father”: See 10.1a, which is identical. This does not mean that a “wise son” becomes a “glad father”, but rather that a son who is wise causes his own father to be happy. “A wise son” is a person who loves wisdom and practices it. There is no intention here to exclude daughters and mothers; note Good News Translation “Wise children.” Contemporary English Version has “Children with good sense make their parents happy.”

“But a foolish man despises his mother”: “A foolish man” is literally “a fool of a man” and refers to fools in general. New Revised Standard Version has “the foolish.” We may also say here “foolish children” or “foolish sons.” For “despises” see 1.7. “His mother” refers to the woman who gave birth to him, but like “father” in the first line, this may be understood to refer to parents in general.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

complete verse (Proverbs 15:20)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 15:20:

  • Kupsabiny: “A wise child makes his parents happy,
    but a foolish one brings (them) shame.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “A wise son makes his father glad,
    a foolish son scorns his mother.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “A wise child gives joy to his parent. Foolish is a child who speaks-evil to his parents.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The thinking/reflective child makes-happy his parent (lit. child originator). Only the fool mocks-belittles his origin (i.e., his parents).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “Children who are wise cause their parents to be happy;
    it is foolish children who despise their parents.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 15:20

15:20

Notice that the underlined parallel parts and the parts in bold print contrast in meaning. The parts in italics function together to refer to both father and mother.

20a
A wise son brings joy to his father,

20b but a foolish man despises his mother.

15:20a

A wise son brings joy to his father: This same clause occurs in 10:1b. See the notes there.

15:20b

but a foolish man despises his mother: This line is similar to 10:1c, but 10:1c has “foolish son” instead of foolish man and “grief” instead of despises.

foolish man:

despises: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as despises probably means to reject, scorn, or show a lack of respect for someone. See the note on “shows contempt for his neighbor” at 11:12a.

General Comment on 15:20a–b

In some languages, these parallel lines may wrongly imply that:

(a) This proverb refers only to sons. It does not refer to daughters. One way to avoid this wrong meaning is to use a general term such as “child.”

(b) A wise son brings joy only to his father.

(c) A foolish person despises only his mother and not his father.

One way to avoid the wrong meaning in (b) or (c) is to combine the parallel parts and use a term such as “parents” or “mother and father.” See 15:20a–b (combined/reordered) in the Display.

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.