A foolish son brings grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.
Pro 17:25 The series of proverbs, v. 25-18:2, begins and closes in the same way as the preceding, and only Pro 17:26 stands by itself without apparent connection. This verse begins connecting itself with Pro 17:21 : A grief to his father is a foolish son, And a bitter woe for her that bare him. The ἅπ. λεγ.
Observe, 1. Wicked children are an affliction to both their parents. They are an occasion of anger to the father (so the word signifies), because they contemn his authority, but of sorrow and bitterness to the mother, because they abuse her tenderness.
A foolish son is a grief to his father,.... Because of his folly and wickedness, and the ruin he is bringing himself to; and bitterness to her that bare him; a cause of bitterness of soul to his mother, more distressing than the bitter pains with which she brought him forth into the world.