Is this meant to be a warning or advice?
I’ve always heard it as advice. From a bible search website ( http://www.biblegateway.com ), King James version:
Proverbs 23:13
Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Proverbs 29:15
The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame
Advice you mean. Thanks, now I know how to handle my kids. 
It’s advice by means of warning. It is warning you that if you spare the rod, you will end up spoiling your child. The implicit advice here is “Don’t spare the rod.”
-FrL-
I second that. The Hebrew equivalent reads “He who spares his rod, hates his son”.
Well that’s news. I had always thought it was a Biblical injunction against artificial insemination.
Testy
And I always thought, anyways, it’s not meant to whack your poor kids with a switch. Spare discipline and spoil the child. Let 'em run wild, and they will be just that.
I had a friend, but Jesus got him. He was a nice, gentle guy before that. He figured that the Bible told he had to hit his son, because his son didn’t always do what he said. I tried to talk him out of it, but he said the Bible was always right.
Turned out his son had Aspergers syndrome, he wasn’t being bad, just didn’t always understand what he was being asked to do … the son never spoke to the father again. Nor have I. Let Jesus have him, J’s got more forgiveness than me, I’ll never forgive him for that.
w.
Yes, it is my understanding that the ‘rod’ referred to is the shepherd’s rod, which is used to guide, not whack.
I think it does mean rod as in a switch, to beat someone with. But the point is that you have to discipline your children, or else they’ll grow up spoiled and, well, undisciplined. It sounds obvious, but there are tons of parents out there who apparently never followed this advice.
Also, current research suggests that it doesn’t really matter whether you use corporal punishment or another method, so long as your punishments are reasonable (that is, not excessively harsh, and not given for things that aren’t really the kid’s fault) and consistant (you can’t let the kid get away with something some times and not others).
DALE: Spanking was wrong then and it’s wrong now. I say spare the rod and spoil the child!
HANK: Dale, “spare the rod and spoil the child” means you’re in favor of spanking.
DALE: I don’t think so.
Proverbs 22:15 (King James Version)
15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
That’s what was inscribed on the paddle at the Christian school I attended. (Along with a drawing of a wailing child.)
I interpreted the OP question to be asking whether it’s a warning (if you spare the rod, you’ll spoil the child, which is undesirable) or advice (you should spare the rod and likewise spoil the child). It’s a warning - it’s not advising spoiling children.
That’s exactly how I interpreted the question, so yes - warning, not advice!
Damn, Lissa. What kind of school was that? Sounds like some pretty muscular Christians there.
Testy
It was a “non-denominational” Christian school, but it leaned heavily toward Baptist.
I estimate an average of one child paddled per day. Since the building only had 3/4 walls, we could hear it loud and clear: the smack of the paddle and then a shriek from the child.
There was one little boy who had mental problems. He wasn’t a bad kid. He just had very poor impulse control and learning disabilites. The principal seemed determined to paddle it out of him. He would scream whenever he saw her coming and she litterally had to drag him into the room where punishments were dispensed. Shockingly, this firm approach didn’t work and he was eventually expelled as being too beligerant for the school to handle.
Paddlings were dispensed for incredibly minor infractions. I was once ordered to be paddled by the principal because I had walked up to a jukebox in a pizza resturant. (Didn’t play anything, but I looked at the song titles and that was bad enough. I wasn’t paddled, though. My mom put a stop to it.) Things which wouldn’t even merit a detention in a normal school were treated as a despicable outrage.
I agree. It’s not beating my child needs, but “rails” or guidelines. If you’ve ever known a child from a household with lax rules, you will understand the need for kids to have these ‘rails’. It makes them feel safe, and loved. Hence, “thy rod and staff comfort me”. It gives a child borders against the crazy insane outside world.
Goddamn. Where/when was this? And are these people safely tucked into a small padded room where they can be insane on their own time?
It was in the Midwest, and I graduated in 1996.
As far as I know, they’re still in business.
Amen…
<mutters darkly>people who read the fecking Bible shouldn’t be allowed to have kids</mutters darkly>