Immediate male ancestor. The father in the Hebrew family, as in the Roman, had supreme rights over his children, could dispose of his daughter in marriage (
Ge 29), arrange his son's marriage (
Ge 24), sell his children (
Ex 21:7), but not his daughter to a stranger (
Ne 5:5), had power of life and death, as in the case of Isaac (
Ge 22), Jephthah's daughter (Jud 11:34 ), the sacrificing of his children to Molech (
Le 18:21;
20:3-5), etc. Respect, reverence and affection for fathers (and equally for mothers) is most tenderly, explicitly and sternly prescribed from the earliest times (
Ex 20:12;
Le 19:3;
De 5:16;
Mic 7:6;
Eze 22:7, etc.). A symmetrical and beautiful picture of the duties and character of the ideal human father may be built up from the Old Testament, with added and enlarged touches from the New Testament. He loves (
Ge 37:4); commands (
Ge 50:16;
Pr 6:20); instructs (
Pr 1:8, etc.); guides, encourages, warns (
Jer 3:4;
1Th 2:11); trains (
Ho 11:3); rebukes (
Ge 34:30); restrains (Eli, by contrast,
1Sa 3:13); punishes (
De 21:18); chastens (
Pr 3:12;
De 8:5); nourishes (
Isa 1:2); delights in his son (
Pr 3:12), and in his son's wisdom (
Pr 10:1); is deeply pained by his folly (
Pr 17:25); he is considerate of his children's needs and requests (
Mt 7:10); considerate of their burdens, or sins (
Mal 3:17, "As a man spareth his own son"); tenderly familiar (
Lu 11:7, "with me in bed"); considerately self-restrained (
Eph 6:4, "Provoke not your children to wrath"); having in view the highest ends (ibid., "Nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord"); pitiful (
Ps 103:13, "as a father pitieth his children"); the last human friend (but one) to desert the child (
Ps 27:10: "When (a thing to the psalmist incredible) my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up").