Proverbs 4:3

my father's son The order of the words in the original: a son was I to my father, suggests the meaning, I was a trueson, a son not only by birth, but by filial reverence and obedience, "filius, i.e. cum vi; veri nominis filius." Maur. Others explain, with Bertheau, "I also stood in the relation to my actual father, in which you stand to me, your paternal instructor."

tender Comp. 1 Chronicles 29:1, where David uses this word of Solomon.

onlybeloved] Lit. only. The R.V., while giving in the margin "Heb. an only one," retains the rendering of A.V. in the text, and prints the word "beloved" (not as A.V., in italics, but) in Roman characters, as being "plainly implied in the Hebrew, and necessary in English" (Revisers" Preface). The point is interesting as bearing upon the authorship of this part of the Book. Solomon was not an "only" son, though it might reasonably be urged that he was so in the same sense as was Isaac, of whom this same word is used (Genesis 22:2; Genesis 22:16. Comp. μονογενῆ, Hebrews 11:17), and who was not strictly an only son either, but one who stood alone in the choice of God and in the Messianic line, and therefore in the estimation of his father. Comp. "Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen," 1 Chronicles 29:1, where (see preceding note), the word "tender" is also applied as here to Solomon. But Solomon was from his birth specially beloved (2 Samuel 12:24-25), and the word is used elsewhere in this derived sense, "alone" not only in fact, but in the value set upon it (Psalms 22:20; Psalms 35:17, "my darling"; where see notes in this Series). ἀγαπώμενος, LXX.