Who really said it

Spare the rod and spoil the child

Not the Bible — coined by Samuel Butler Samuel Butler 1613–1680 · English satirical poet, author of “Hudibras”

Disputed Free to reuse

The exact proverb appears in no Bible translation. Its earliest documented form is in Butler’s mock-heroic poem “Hudibras” (Part II, Canto I; registered 5 Nov 1663, printed 1664), where a widow deploys it as a bawdy joke. Scripture inspired the idea — Proverbs 13:24 — but never carried this wording.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Spare the rod and spoil the child” Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part II (1664) — not the Bible

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Provenance

Where the phrase actually comes from

Work: Hudibras, Part II, Canto I
Author: Samuel Butler (1613–1680)
First appearance: Registered 5 Nov 1663; printed 1664
Biblical root: Proverbs 13:24 (different wording)

What medicine else can cure the fits
Of lovers when they lose their wits?
Love is a boy by poets stil’d;
Then spare the rod, and spoil the child. the rhyming couplet Butler made famous

The lines are a widow’s ribald tease, not a parenting maxim — Butler was mocking, not moralising. Proverbs 13:24 (KJV, 1611) reads instead: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”

Hudibras on Project Gutenberg

How we know

The exact phrase is absent from Scripture; per Wikipedia, it originates in Samuel Butler’s “Hudibras.”
Word Histories dates the earliest attestation to “Hudibras: the second part” (London, 1664) and gives Proverbs 13:24 as the KJV source of the sentiment.
This Day in Quotes quotes the full couplet and notes Part II was entered in the Stationers’ Register on 5 Nov 1663 in a bawdy, satirical context.

Public domain

Butler’s “Hudibras, Part II” was first published in 1664, and the King James Bible in 1611 — both are long in the public domain in the United States.

Fact-check

Why people think it’s in the Bible

The line sounds scriptural and echoes a real proverb, so it is routinely quoted as the word of God. It isn’t.

The Bible not in any translation

No Bible version — KJV, NIV, or otherwise — contains the phrase “spare the rod and spoil the child.” The nearest verse, Proverbs 13:24, reads “He that spareth his rod hateth his son.”

A parenting rule actually a dirty joke

In Hudibras the words are a widow’s ribald tease about love and whipping, not advice on raising children — a satirical inversion, not a moral maxim.

The sentiment is biblical, but the exact wording was coined by Samuel Butler in 1663–64.

Context

Idea vs. wording

The confusion is understandable: the Book of Proverbs really does link the “rod” to discipline in several verses, and English speakers absorbed that idea for centuries. Butler simply gave it a catchy, rhyming, alliterative shape — and did so as a joke, putting it in the mouth of a flirtatious widow.

Once the couplet caught on, the memorable Butler wording detached from its satirical setting and floated back toward the scripture that inspired it, until most people assumed they were quoting the Bible directly.

The thought is Solomon’s; the sentence is Butler’s.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Character Leadership

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Spare the roden.wikipedia.org

Overview tracing the phrase to Butler’s Hudibras, not the Bible

Origin of ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’wordhistories.net

Scholarly note on earliest attestation and the Proverbs 13:24 root

‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’thisdayinquotes.com

Full Hudibras couplet, registration date, and satirical context

Hudibras (full text)gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg edition of Butler’s poem

spare the rod and spoil the childen.wiktionary.org

Etymology entry attributing the wording to Butler’s Hudibras

The true source of the wording

About Samuel Butler

Samuel Butler

1613–1680 · English poet & satirist

Samuel Butler (1613–1680) was an English poet best known for Hudibras, a mock-heroic satire ridiculing the Puritans and religious hypocrisy of his day. Published in three parts (1663, 1664, 1678), the poem was hugely popular at the Restoration court and coined several phrases that outlived their bawdy origins — including “spare the rod and spoil the child.”

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Hudibras, Part II

Samuel Butler, Hudibras, The Second Part (London, 1664), Canto I. Sentiment derived from Proverbs 13:24 (King James Version, 1611).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-child