Proverbs 6:20 tells a young person to keep their father’s commandment and not to abandon their mother’s teaching. In plain terms, it asks the child to take seriously the guidance their parents give, treating it as a trustworthy path rather than something to brush aside. The words are spoken by a father or a wisdom teacher addressing “my son,” the way the book of Proverbs typically opens its lessons to a young man beginning adult life.
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 phrase “keep your father’s commandment” asks for more than hearing. To keep a command is to guard it, hold onto it, and live by it. The word “commandment” points to a clear instruction, the kind of direction a parent gives about honesty, work, sexual purity, or how to treat others. The verse assumes that the father has actually given such direction and that the son’s task is to take it into daily life.
The second half, “don’t forsake your mother’s teaching,” carries the same weight. “Teaching” translates a word closer to instruction or guidance, often the everyday counsel a mother gives in the home. Proverbs repeatedly joins the two parents together, so the verse is not setting one parent against the other. It is describing a household where both voices point toward the same wise way of living.
What the verse does not promise is that obedience will make life easy or that every parent’s word is flawless. It describes a general pattern that the wisdom literature trusts: a young person who values the guidance of those who have walked the road before tends to avoid many painful mistakes. The verse speaks to attitude and habit, not to a guaranteed outcome for every circumstance.
The Context of Proverbs 6:20
The book of Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings, traditionally linked to Solomon, meant to form the character of the next generation. Its opening chapters repeatedly address “my son,” picturing a teacher or father speaking to a young man who must choose between the path of wisdom and the path of folly. Verse 20 sits within that frame, giving the reader a clear sense of who is being instructed and why.
The verses just before it, Proverbs 6:17-19, list things the Lord hates, including haughty eyes, lying tongues, and a heart that plans wickedness. The verses just after it, 6:21-23, describe binding the parents’ teaching on the heart and calling it a lamp and a light. Read in that setting, verse 20 is the hinge between warning and guidance: the parents’ instruction is presented as the safe lamp that keeps a young person from stumbling into the very sins the surrounding lines describe.
Key Phrases in Proverbs 6:20
Ephesians 6:1
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
(WEB)
Paul echoes the same family pattern, urging children to obey their parents in the Lord. The idea is the same as Proverbs 6:20: a child’s respect for parental guidance is treated as part of living rightly before God.
Proverbs 1:8
My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching…
(WEB)
This verse opens the book’s teaching with the same pairing of father and mother. It shows that the instruction in verse 20 is a recurring theme that shapes the whole collection.
A Short Prayer From Proverbs 6:20
Lord, you know how easily I brush aside the wisdom of those who have loved me and gone before me. Help me to hold onto the instruction I have been given, to guard it carefully, and not to walk away from it when it feels inconvenient. Where I have already ignored counsel I should have heeded, forgive me, and teach me to listen with humility. Let the guidance of my parents, and above all your own wisdom, become a steady light for the choices I make today. Amen.
