You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 5. You have forgotten the consolation, and so forth He puts them in mind, that it ought to be a subject of great comfort to them, that God calls them his children, his sons, and treats them as his true and legitimate children, when he admonished them to live under discipline and obedience to him, when, to correct their disobedient and sinful ways, he sends the afflictions and persecutions in this world, which they ought to look upon as marks of his fatherly tenderness; for this is what a prudent kind father does to his legitimate children, of whom he takes the greatest care: and not to use these corrections, is to neglect them, as if they were [3]illegitimate children. We reverence the father of our flesh, (verse 10) our parents in this world, when they instruct and correct us, how much more ought we to obey the Father and Creator of spirits, (that is of our souls) that being truly sanctified by him, we may live and obtain life everlasting. Witham.