Do You Also Want To Go Astray? (Jn.6:67)

If you *cease, my son, from *hearing correction, *you too will *go astray from the *words of wisdom. (MAST)

*[If you cease] literally, You be fat. Though in the second person imperative mood, it is not so much expressing a command as much as a possibility. Solomon has taken a son of his alongside himself to prepare him for the trade of kingship. He is using the throne, and the cases that come before it, to train up his son in the art of judging and stewarding the investments of the kingdom. To judge the kingdom and protect its interests requires the gluttony of knowledge, but more so, the skill to discern between the good and evil of that knowledge.

And so in response to what his son just observed “in judgment” of the case that came before the throne, Solomon says to his own son, “You be fat on the words of correction, unlike like that other son of the kingdom, though receiving my “spiritual” favor, who is now sleeked down by the depravity of his wife and son. Though that man has just been stripped to bare bones of his wealth and the honor of his home, he retains the spiritual honor of my justification in the wisdom of righteousness. His wife and son walk away with his filthy rags (Isa.64:6), but he retains the blood of the sacrifice of our High Priest (1Jn.1:7). Therefore, you, my son, be fat with the wisdom of our God. Do not starve yourself of the knowledge of God and turn your face away from His correction.”

Therefore, the HCSB translators have the most straightforward rendering in that it presents a hypothetical imperative for the son. The case that just came before Solomon and his son is a possibility in his own house, should his son cease from learning wisdom and forsake the Mediator of their trust. It is translated more directly, to cease, at an elementary level, because contexts vary in the use of the word, but as known in 1Sam.2:5, it is better understood, to grow fat, in relation to starving (Jn.6:35;Matt.5:6;Isa.49:10). So over time, the word became more simplified where the majority of contexts use it to express a cessation of something, but in that context it is was a cessation of hunger (1Sam.2:5). So it’s acceptable to simplify the imperative verb to mean, cease, rather than to say, be fat because not everyone is commanded to be fat, as was the case of the man being called to starve (sacrifice) for the pride and disgrace of his wife and son (Ecc.4:8). The civil court may have favored the separation at the expense of the father, but the spiritual court favors the father for his spiritual obedience [from the heart] to the wisdom of the LORD.

*[from hearing correction] literally, towards the hearers of correction. For translative reasons, I skipped over, my son, because it’s self-explanatory, but it’s necessary to discuss for interpretative purposes. Solomon pauses between the command, you be fat, to directly addressing his own son. That’s important to grasp what follows. Solomon’s son is being charged to understand the responsibility that comes with being the king of the Jews. His son will be given the kingdom in all its “fatness” to feed the children of the Most High God. What is he to supply them with? Wisdom in all its splendor. This is why Solomon was blessed by God, to bless the spiritual children of the promise. It is these children who give their ears to obey the judgments of God, and it is these children for whom the house of David became the fattened calf that it may be sacrificed and consumed in the Temple. The fatness of David’s house and Solomon’s court (in God’s purpose) is “towards” all those who have ears to hear (2Chr.9:3,9,12).

It is the discipline of the covenants from Adam to David that Solomon’s children are to master. They are to be continually at work perfecting their understanding of God’s purposes and promises of the Law (Deut.17:14-20). It could easily be translated, “You be fat, my son, for the ears of correction, because they stray from wisdom.” Solomon’s seat is not to be understood on the same level as the mercy seat of the Most Holy Place. Solomon is not the High Priest, nor does he go into the most holy place to seek the face of God, but Solomon’s court is the fatted calf that is offered before the Lord to inquire in the Temple concerning the disputes of the kingdom and of the world (Isa.56:7). The people come to Solomon for wisdom, but if this wisdom is not mediated by a just weight, it is only the wisdom of men and not of God (Dan.5:27;Prov.11:1). Therefore it was of great importance that the house of David walk in the judgments of Yahweh and not their own imaginations (1Kgs.6:12). The ‘hearers’ are those who seek holy counsel from the Lord, and so Solomon was not to contradict the Spirit of wisdom. He was to be fat, that is to say, he was to be ready to serve this court for every matter that may present itself. The fatness of the court is what made this possible (1Pet.3:15;2Tim.4:2;2Cor.9:5).

Solomon needed everything at his fingertips in order to serve this court in the capacity that was required of it (Lk.11:46). Every resource (i.e., things written, like books) was necessary for him to make these judgments at the least expense of those who came into the court. Therefore the court itself was a holy and acceptable sacrifice to the Most High, and this fatness was gained (and to be gained) at the least expense of the children of the kingdom (Matt.17:24-27). David’s house grew fat of the plunder received through treaties and the self-defense of their borders. Some tax and shares were offered to support, first, Saul’s, then, David’s conquests (2Sam.19:43), but most of their capital gain was off of the righteous plundering of their enemies. Solomon’s son is being charged not to lose the ground gained through his peaceful wisdom so that they could be free from bribery and the corruption that comes with it. This was “absolutely” necessary to exercise the liberty of their own conscience in judging between the people.

*[you too] literally, towards. But this is in conjunction with the first imperative as the corrective of the antecedent statement of the father who lost his wife and son. Therefore the KJV translators offer a twist of insight into this, by translating it, “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction ‘that causes’ to err from the words of knowledge.” While I don’t believe that is an accurate rendering, it doesn’t change the validity of such wisdom. Any instruction that would cause us to stray from what we already know is true should be immediately rejected. And that would have some applicable use here, but again that is not Solomon’s intention (Ecc.4:8).

This, “towards,” here is intending to use the fatness of the court to steer the hearers from straying from the knowledge of God. That’s what this court is being sacrificed unto, the preservation of the children of Israel. So Solomon is training his son to lead with the spiritual wisdom of God in mind, and so the “conjunction” is repeating the first imperative, in the second person, and in application to the wandering from “the commandment,” to keep your vow holy to the Lord. Therefore it’s intended to be rendered, in the hypothetical imperative, “Be fat, my son, for the ears of correction, lest you be a strayer of,” in this case, like them, of good knowledge.

*[will go astray] literally, towards the strayer. Again, in the sense of application, the fatness of the (spiritual) court is pointing at the strayer (in judgment). Who is the strayer but the wife, and the son who is in the decision of the wife? The fatness of the (civil) court leads toward the preservation of “the strayer.” The strayer, then, is not the father who is seeking the submission of the wife and son, and so it is the wife who is straying from the promise of her vow “of knowledge,” and in this case, a vow in the Lord. Solomon is saying that the fatness of the court is to favor “the strayer.” In other words, the father is to give the wife what she wants, which is his filthy rages, the righteousnesses of his youth and of his future (Isa.64:6;Heb.4:12), but the father retains his soul spiritually (Mk.8:34-38;Rev.2:11;20:6;21:8). He receives the forgiveness of sins because the mother of the child wants to keep her self-righteousness (Ecc.4:8;Matt.16:25;Lk.18:9-14;Matt.9:10-13;Mk.2:17). The infinitive verb then speaks of her guilt and disgrace of the shame that walks into Solomon’s court. Solomon is showing his son how to cleanse himself of the filthiness of his duty as judge by offering the fat of the sacrifice on the altar of the Temple for the justification/substitution of the father, and to learn not to walk in the image of the unjust (Heb.6:10;1Pet.3:18;2Pet.2:9;Rev.22:11).

*[words of wisdom] literally, discerning statements. These, of course, are referring to these proverbial judgments and teachings that Solomon is summarizing into short sayings as he trains his son along his side in the work he does as king. While the other translations render the Hebrew noun, da-at, as knowledge, it should be best recognized, especially of our context, as wisdom incorporating the skill of discerning knowledge. This skill is a qualification for every judge but is not a knowledge that is inherent to man. This skill must be acquired and practiced for it to have a fruitful effect. Therefore the careful study of facts and a good memory/record of previous cases should be stored for the aid of making better judgments in the future (Ecc.12:9-14). The Scriptures all-together give us a spiritual precedent, but Solomon is talking about these proverbial precedents that he is handing over to his son to be “the judicial precedent” of the fatness of the house of David.