Proverbs 6:20 tells a young person to hold fast to the instruction of their father and mother, and not to abandon it. The verse is a parent’s or teacher’s appeal to a son, and it presents a father’s command and a mother’s teaching as two sources of the same wisdom. It opens the next portion of the book, where the sage urges the young man to guard his life against the traps that lie in wait for the unwary.
My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
Proverbs 6:20 (WEB)
What Proverbs 6:20 Means
The verse begins with “My son,” which signals the warm, personal tone of the whole book. The speaker is not issuing a stranger’s rules but calling a young person into a relationship of trust. The word “commandment” refers to a clear instruction or guideline, something a child can understand and act on, while “teaching” points to the broader guidance a mother gives through daily life and example. Together they describe the full shape of a child’s upbringing, both the firm directives and the gentle shaping.
The verse does not promise that obeying parents will bring wealth, ease, or freedom from hardship. Proverbs speaks in general patterns, describing how wisdom tends to work out over a life rather than guaranteeing a particular result in every case. What the verse does is name a stance: keep these things, do not let them slip away. It assumes that a young person will face pressure to drop their parents’ values and invites them to resist that drift.
The Context of Proverbs 6:20
The book of Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings, traditionally associated with King Solomon, though parts of it are attributed to other sages. Its intended audience is a young man, but its lessons apply to anyone learning to live well. The book repeatedly casts wisdom as a path to follow and folly as a road that leads to ruin, and it frames the parents’ teaching as the first place a young person meets that wisdom.
The verses just before and after set the scene. Verses 17 through 19 list the things the Lord hates: arrogance, lying, violence, scheming, and the stirring up of conflict among family. Verses 21 through 23 then describe how the parents’ teaching should be kept close, bound to the heart, guiding the walk, watching over sleep, and speaking when one wakes. Read in this setting, verse 20 is the hinge between a warning about wicked behavior and a promise that faithful instruction will protect the one who receives it.
Key Phrases in Proverbs 6:20
Ephesians 6:1-3
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: 3 “that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.”
(WEB)
Paul echoes the same call in his letter to the church, urging children to obey their parents in the Lord and honoring the parent as the first commandment with a promise. It widens the picture from a private teaching to a shared family life shaped by faith.
Proverbs 1:8-9
8 My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching: 9 for they will be a garland to grace your head, and chains around your neck.
(WEB)
Found near the start of the book, these verses use nearly the same pairing of father and mother, showing that the call to heed parental instruction frames the whole collection of wise sayings.
A Short Prayer From Proverbs 6:20
Father, thank You for the people who taught me what is good and true. Help me to keep their instruction close and not to walk away from it when the world tempts me to think I know better. Where I have already drifted, bring me back with humility and a willing heart. Give me the wisdom to recognize Your voice speaking through the people You have placed in my life, and make me a person who guards what is worth keeping. Amen.
