Proverbs 4:3
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
American King James Version (AKJV)
For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
American Standard Version (ASV)
For I was a son unto my father, Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
For I was a son to my father, a gentle and an only one to my mother.
Webster's Revision
For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
World English Bible
For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.
English Revised Version (ERV)
For I was a son unto my father, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
Barnes's Proverbs 4:3 Bible Commentary
Probably the words of Solomon himself, who looks back from his glorious throne and his matured wisdom to the training which was the starting point. The part taken by Bathsheba in 1 Kings 1, no less than the friendship between her and Nathan, indicates that a mother's training might well have laid the foundation of the king's future wisdom. Among the Israelites and Egyptians alone, of the nations of the old world, was the son's reverence for the mother placed side by side with that which he owed to his father.
Only beloved, - literally "only," but the word is used apparently (as in Genesis 22:2, Genesis 22:12) in its derived sense, "beloved like an only son." The Vulgate gives "unigenitus." Compare the words applied to our Lord, as the "only begotten" John 1:14, the "beloved" Ephesians 1:6.
Wesley's Proverbs 4:3 Bible Commentary
4:3 Tender - Young and tender in years, and tenderly educated.Only beloved - Beloved above all the rest.