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Proverbs of Solomon
Proverbs › Chapter 19 › Proverbs 19:26

What Does Proverbs 19:26 Mean?

He who mistreats his father and chases away his motherIs a son who causes shame and brings reproach.Proverbs 19:26 · NKJV

Quick answer

A grown child who plunders his parents disgraces himself. The verse describes predation, not distance.

Read both lines

The verbs are stronger than most translations can carry. The first is a word for violent destruction or plundering, and the second is a word for putting to flight, so the son in view is not neglectful, he is driving his parents out. The setting is an aging household where a son has the strength and the position to take what he wants, and the second line delivers the verdict in public terms, shame and reproach, because in that world a family's standing was the currency being spent. The verse belongs beside the chapter's other portraits of power used against people who cannot answer back.

What it does not mean

This is not a verse for keeping an adult child within reach of a parent who harmed them. It describes a son who is the aggressor against parents who are not, and reversing that situation reverses the verse. An adult putting distance between themselves and an abusive parent is not the son in this sentence, and the catalog says plainly that a proverb may never be used to keep someone where they are being harmed. Honor is real and Scripture commands it. It has never required proximity to someone still doing the damage.

Related: Proverbs 20:20 · Proverbs 28:24 · Proverbs 30:17 · Proverbs 23:22

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.

Go Deeper

If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.