The glory of young men is their strength,
but the splendour of old men is their grey hair.
Blows that wound cleanse away evil;
strokes make clean the innermost parts.Proverbs 20:29-30
Of 29 Kidner says that it is 'a proverb to lift the reader above the unfruitful attitudes of envy, impatience and contempt which the old and the young may adopt towards each other. Each age has its appointed excellence, to be respected and enjoyed in its time'. Implicit in this is the New Testament doctrine of membership: we are members in particular of the body of Christ, and therefore dependent on one another. When this is understood, it disposes of the generation gap. The AV's 'blueness' in 30 is misleading, and the RSV is preferable, with its 'Blows that wound'. The literal translation of the Hebrew is 'strokes of bruising', and the meaning, according to Kidner, is 'a severe beating'. The verse therefore stands as a vindication of corporal punishment. One recalls the Psalmist's words (119:67), 'Before I was afflicted, I went astray but now have I kept Thy word'. The moral power of correction is seen in the Scriptures to be very considerable. In a more general reference to spiritual life, the proverb is just as true: the determined probing of God's pruning knife can be extremely painful, but it is a cleansing and purifying pain, and often the only way to promote healing. Ironside adds, 'As he would be an unwise patient who objected to the pain caused by the surgeon while he endeavoured to free the wound from impurities that might effectually hinder healing, and which, if unremoved, might poison the whole system, so is the saint foolish indeed who repines under a Father's chastening hand, and seeks to free himself from the stripes rather than to 'hear the rod, and Him who hath appointed it (Micah 6:9)’'