The wise king next addresses the youth: “Listen, my son, to the discipline of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother.

Proverbs 1:8, 9.

In ancient Israel, parents had the God-given responsibility of teaching their children. Moses exhorted fathers: “These words that I am commanding you today must prove to be on your heart; and you must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:6, 7) Mothers too had considerable influence. Within the framework of her husband’s authority, a Hebrew wife could enforce family law.