Withhold not correction from the child: for if you beat him with a rod, he shall not die.
All Commentaries on Proverbs 23:13 Go To Proverbs 23
Basil the Great
AD 379
As small children who are negligent in learning become more attentive and obedient after being punished by their teacher or tutor, and as they do not listen before the lash, but, after feeling the pain of a beating, hear and respond as though their ears were just recently opened, improving also in memory, so likewise with those who neglect divine doctrine and spurn the commandments. For, after they experience God’s correction and discipline, then the commandments of God which had always been known to them and always neglected are most readily received as though by ears freshly cleansed.
