Text: Proverbs 6:20
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 6:6
Subject: Parental transmission of Torah
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Proverbs 6:20 commands "keep your father's commandment" (נְצֹר מִצְוַת אָבִיךָ, netsor mitsvat avikha) and "do not forsake your mother's teaching" (תּוֹרַת אִמֶּךָ, torat immekha), applying the Deuteronomic pedagogy of 6:6 -- "these words... are to be upon your hearts" -- to the concrete household setting. In Deuteronomy, Moses charges all Israel to internalize God's commands and teach them to their children; in Proverbs, the sage assumes this intergenerational transmission has occurred and now calls the son to receive what his parents have faithfully passed down. The use of מִצְוָה (mitsvah, "commandment") and תּוֹרָה (torah, "teaching/instruction") for parental instruction deliberately echoes Mosaic covenant vocabulary, signaling that the wisdom teacher's authority derives from and participates in the Torah tradition itself.