CORRECTION (מוּסָר, H4592, LXX παιδεία, G4082; discipline, chastening, correction, training).

In the OT it is used of the character training which Yahweh gives Israel as a nation and to its individual members, as a loving father to a son (Deut 11:2; Ps 50:17; Jer 17:23; 32:33). It comes through God’s Word and statutes, and God’s acts in history and private experience. It is vital and beneficial, when taken to heart, but may involve hardship and suffering, and even bring a man to the point of death (Ps 118:18; Jer 10:24). In Proverbs it is bound up with wisdom (1:2, 3, 7; 15:33; 23:23). Men die for lack of it (5:23). It is sometimes accompanied by “reproof” (תּﯴכַ֫חַת, H9350, LXX ἔλεγχος, G1793; 5:12; 6:23; 15:5, 10, 32; etc.).

The word is not frequent in the NT. Hebrews 12:5 describes the difficulties and persecutions experienced by Christians as “the discipline (paideia) of the Lord.” It is proof of the Father’s love and the believer’s sonship (cf. Prov 3:11f.). The verb παιδεύω, G4084, is used of divine chastening in 1 Corinthians 11:32; Hebrews 12:6; Revelation 3:19. Correction (ἐπανόρθωσις, G2061) is a function of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16) which is divinely inspired and given, so that the man of God may be complete.

Bibliography Arndt, 248, 282, 608f.; BDB, 407, 415f.; G. Bertram, παιδεύω, G4084, etc., TWNT, V, 596-624; D. Kidner, Proverbs (1964) passim.