The interpretation timeline

Prov 23:13

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

3 Patristic · 1 Reformed · 1 Lutheran

Prov 23:13 · Douay-Rheims
“Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
379
A.D.
Basil of Caesarea Patristic
c. A.D. 330–379
“As small children who are negligent in learning become more attentive and obedient after being punished by their teacher or tutor, and as they do not listen before the lash, but, after feeling the pain of a beating, hear and respond as though their ears were just recently opened, improving also in memory, so likewise with those who neglect divine doctrine and spurn the commandments. For, after they experience God's correction and discipline, then the commandments of God which had always been known to them and always neglected are most readily received as though by ears freshly cleansed.”
Source
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“If the evil will is always to be left to its own freedom, why are careless shepherds rebuked, and why is it said to them, "The wandering sheep you have not called back, that which was lost you have not sought"?”
542
A.D.
Caesarius of Arles Patristic
c. A.D. 470–542
“When someone presumes to commit a sin against God, he ought to suffer a monastic penance. This should be done in a kind and devout spirit, so that through rebuke he may be corrected in this life in such a way that he may not perish in the future. For every sin which is not corrected in this world will be punished in the future life. Sacred Scripture speaks thus about the son and the servant: "Strike him with the rod," it says, "and you will save him from the nether world."”
Source
1,329 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1871
A.D.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Reformed
1871
“While there is little danger that the use of the "divine ordinance of the rod" will produce bodily harm, there is great hope of spiritual good.”
1875
A.D.
Keil & Delitzsch Lutheran
1861–1875
“13 Withhold not correction from the child; For thou will beat him with the rod, and he will not die. 14 Thou beatest him with the rod, And with it deliverest his soul from hell. The exhortation, 13a, presupposes that education by word and deed is a duty devolving on the father and the teacher with regard to the child. In 13b, כּי is in any case the relative conjunction. The conclusion does not mean: so will he not fall under death (destruction), as Luther also would have it, after Deu 19:21, for this thought certainly follows Pro 23:14; nor after Pro 19:18 : so may the stroke not be one whereof he dies, for then the author ought to have written אל־תּמיתנּוּ; but: he will not die of it, i.e., only strike if he has deserved it, thou needest not fear; the bitter medicine will be beneficial to him, not deadly. The אתּה standing before the double clause, Pro 23:14, means that he who administers corporal chastisement to the child, saves him spiritually; for שׁאול does not refer to death in general, but to death falling upon a man before his time, and in his sins, vid., Pro 15:24, cf. Pro 8:26.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.