Don't Wear Yourself Out
Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Proverbs 23:22 · Berean Standard Bible
Respect your parents, especially as they age—they gave you life and they deserve your honor, not your dismissal.
In the ancient world, aging parents had no social security or retirement system. They depended on their children's care and respect. But more than that, there's something deeper here: this verse assumes you've learned things from your parents that have shaped who you are. To despise them is to reject part of your own formation.
The wisdom teacher speaking directly to a young person, reminding them of a fundamental obligation that's easy to forget when you're grown and independent.
This commandment appears elsewhere in Scripture as one of the Ten Commandments. It's woven throughout the Bible because it addresses something basic about human dignity and gratitude. Honoring parents is about recognizing that you didn't create yourself.
Honor your parents throughout their lives, particularly in their decline, as gratitude and filial piety form the bedrock of social order and personal integrity.
The command invokes the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12) but situates it in the particular vulnerability of aging—specifically the mother's vulnerability when she can no longer command economic or physical authority. The Hebrew negative lō' tiqas (do not despise) carries the sense of active contempt, not mere neglect. In ancient Mediterranean societies, elder abandonment was shameful precisely because it represented the dissolution of covenant bonds within the family.
The wisdom teacher, drawing on the foundational law and addressing the perennial human temptation to sever ties with aging parents once they become economically unproductive.
This command appears within the Decalogue's transitional hinge—the shift from duties toward God to duties toward neighbor—thereby establishing that honoring parents participates in the sanctification of the social order itself. Early Christian writers like Augustine emphasized this as the first interpersonal command, and thus the test of whether one's piety is genuine.
20Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.
21For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them in rags.
22Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23Invest in truth and never sell it— in wisdom and instruction and understanding.
24The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice, and he who fathers a wise son will delight in him.
Read all of Proverbs 23 — Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Have the wisdom to show restraint. Riches sprout wings and fly away like an eagle.
This page covers one. BibleKey does all 31,102 — tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and keep reading without leaving the chapter.
Not just the famous ones. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhone & iPad