A foolish son is a grief to his father, And bitterness to her who bore him.
Parallel translations
- WEB A foolish son brings grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him.
- KJV A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.
- BSB A foolish son brings grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.
- NASB A foolish son is a grief to his father, And bitterness to her who gave birth to him.
- NLT Foolish children bring grief to their father and bitterness to the one who gave them birth.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A foolish child brings sorrow to both father and mother. Folly grieves the whole household that raised the child.
Overview
Echoing verse 21, this proverb broadens the grief of a foolish son to include the mother who bore him, stressing the shared anguish of parents. It reinforces the theme that wisdom and folly are not merely private matters but deeply affect family and community. The verse calls children to honor their parents through wise living and reminds all of the heartache that sin causes those who love us.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Prov 10:1The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father; but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.
- Prov 15:20A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish man despises his mother.
- 2 Sam 13:1–22After this, Absalom the son of David had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.
- Prov 19:13A foolish son is the calamity of his father. A wife’s quarrels are a continual dripping.
- Eccl 2:18–19I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 17:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.