The concept that Yahweh’s love includes chastening has a long history in Judeo-Christian thought. In various iterations, it permeates the advice of Proverbs to parents in dealing with their children. As the earthly advice, so the heavenly. Yahweh is to humankind a father and therefore also chastens his loved children. Proverbs 23:13–14 instructs:
Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
Note that the rod is used to correct a misbehaving child, to turn him back to the right path. Similarly, the straying Nephites require correction to return to the correct path. The writer of Proverbs acknowledges that the process may be painful, but “he shall not die.” Significantly the context of this proverb is eternal salvation. The chastening will “deliver his soul from hell.” Of course this is precisely the danger in which the Nephites find themselves.
These same sentiment also appears in Proverbs 22:15: “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”
Children will be foolish. The Nephites were foolish. The application of the “rod of correction” is a means by which the child, and the Nephites, might be restored to their proper way.
“He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” (Prov. 13:24). Possibly the Book of Mormon’s language of love and chastening is an echo of Proverbs 13:24. Certainly the sentiment is authentic and more widespread than this verse, but the similarity of the language suggests its influence on Joseph’s rendering of Samuel’s admonition.