Proverbs 9:12

12. For thyself, etc. There is often a feeling in the mind of children and pupils that their parents and teachers make requirements of them for selfish ends; that they and their teachers are two parties, with antagonistic interests. This is a very mischievous error. The more children and pupils can be made to feel that their own good is sought for, in all the means of instruction and discipline, the better: that if they obey and improve, they themselves will be the chief gainers; and if they are refractory and negligent they will be the great losers. This is, probably, the sentiment of the verse. Comp. Job 22:2; Job 35:6-8. On last clause, comp. Numbers 9:13; Jeremiah 7:19; Galatians 6:5; Proverbs 8:36. The Septuagint adds to this verse the following, not found in the Hebrew: “He that stays himself upon falsehood attempts to rule the winds, and the same will pursue birds in their flight; for he has forsaken the ways of his own vineyard, and he has caused the axles of his own husbandry to go astray; but he goes through a dry desert, and a land appointed to drought, and he gathers barrenness with his hands.”