Proverbs 6:23
Because the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
Open Proverbs 6:23 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quia mandatum lucerna est, et lex lux, et via vitæ increpatio disciplinæ :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὅτι λύχνος ἐντολὴ νόμου, καὶ φῶς ὁδὸς ζωῆς καὶ ἔλεγχος καὶ παιδεία,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כִּ֤י נֵ֣ר מִ֭צְוָה וְת֣וֹרָה א֑וֹר וְדֶ֥רֶךְ חַ֝יִּ֗ים תּוֹכְח֥וֹת מוּסָֽר
Haydock's commentary
Instruction. Given for our improvement, (Haydock) with charity. See Deuteronomy vi. 6., and Psalm xviii. 9.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter VIII. The True Doctrine is to Be Sought in the Prophets
And again by Isaiah, “Who shall measure heaven with a span, and the whole earth with his hand?” Behold God’s greatness, and be filled with amazement. Let us worship Him of whom the prophet says, “Before Thy face the hills shall melt, as wax melteth before the fire!” This, says he, is the God “whose throne is heaven, and His footstool the earth; and if He open heaven, quaking will seize thee.” Will you hear, too, what this prophet says of idols? “And they shall be made a spectacle of in the face of the sun, and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and the wild beasts of the earth; and they shall putrefy before the sun and the moon, which they have loved and served; and their city shall be burned down.” He says, too, that the elements and the world shall be destroyed. …
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter XXIX. The Greeks But Children Compared with the Hebrews
Similarly, also, demonstrations from the resources of erudition, strengthen, confirm, and establish demonstrative reasonings, in so far as men’s minds are in a wavering state like young people’s. “The good commandment,” then, according to the Scripture, “is a lamp, and the law is a light to the path; for instruction corrects the ways of life.” “Law is monarch of all, both of mortals and of immortals,” says Pindar. I understand, however, by these words, Him who enacted law. And I regard, as spoken of the God of all, the following utterance of Hesiod, though spoken by the poet at random and not with comprehension:
St Gregory Nazianzen The Oration on Holy Baptism
VI. Light was also the firstborn commandment given to the firstborn man (for the commandment of the Law is a lamp and a light; and again, Because Thy judgments are a light upon the earth); although the envious darkness crept in and wrought wickedness. And a Light typical and proportionate to those who were its subjects was the written law, adumbrating the truth and the sacrament of the great Light, for Moses’ face was made glorious by it. And, to mention more Lights, it was Light that appeared out of Fire to Moses, when it burned the bush indeed, but did not consume it, to shew its nature and to declare the power that was in it. And it was Light that was in the pillar of fire that led Israel and tamed the wilderness. It was Light that carried up Elias in the car of fire, and yet did not burn him as it carried him. …