“Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days.” Proverbs 19:20 Berean Standard Bible
Discipline. For me, discipline has meant punishment, like for not following the rules or making mistakes. Not a fan.
It is, however, a word also used in training, like for a bicycle marathon.
In other Bible versions discipline is rendered as instruction. Its origin is Latin, and meant instruction, training, knowledge. It entered Middle English with the original meaning of teaching and learning. At some point it came to mean chastisement and later evolved into orderly conduct.
Evolved may not be correct, as discipline seems to convey three things: teaching/learning, chastisement, AND orderly conduct.
Interestingly, in the Jewish Publication Society version of the Tanakh (Old Testament), from 1917, Proverbs 19:20 is translated as “Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.”
This isn’t the only word used in English translations that can easily be misinterpreted. In the previous column, Listen to counsel https://jonahzsong.blog/?p=6087, the graphic has the word wait, as in “wait on the LORD.” Does it mean wait as in “please sit here and wait for me.” What about people who wait on tables? Seems the original word wait was waite, and meant to watch, and could have the connotation of longing. There are entire phrases that can mean one thing to one person, and something entirely different to another person, such as “rightly divide. . .(2 Timothy 2:15)“
There are many ways in which the Bible can be understood and taught. May GOD enlighten our hearts, in the Name of Jesus, in the Power of Spirit.
As Apostle Paul prayed (Ephesians 1:15-23):
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
LORD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
Jonah’s Song 