Proverbs — Chapter 23

Quando sederis ut comedas cum principe, diligenter attende quae apposita sunt ante faciem tuam

When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you. Lapide: A proverb of social prudence — the behavior appropriate to eating with the powerful. Lapide explains the allegorical interpretation of Athanasius: \"When you see (sederis = consider) as if to eat with a prince\" = when you come to deal with the powerful, be extremely attentive to what is set before you — the dangers, the temptations to flattery, the compromises expected. \"Put a knife to your throat\" (v.2) = mortify your desires and your tongue severely in such situations, lest you be corrupted by power and proximity to the great.

Ne subtrahas a puero disciplinam: si enim percusseris eum virga, non morietur

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. Lapide: A companion verse to 13:24. Physical correction of children, administered with due measure and for genuine correction (not anger), is not cruelty but love. \"Non morietur\" = the child will not die from correction — but he may well die (spiritually and even physically, through bad habits leading to ruin) if correction is withheld. Lapide cites many Fathers on the necessity of early correction and the harm of excessive leniency.