Albert Barnes Commentary Proverbs 4:3

"For I was a son unto my father, Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother." — Proverbs 4:3 (ASV)

Probably the words of Solomon himself, who looks back from his glorious throne and his matured wisdom to the training that was the starting point. The part taken by Bathsheba in (1 Kings 1), no less than the friendship between her and Nathan, indicates that a mother’s training might well have laid the foundation of the king’s future wisdom. Among the Israelites and Egyptians alone, of the nations of the old world, was the son’s reverence for the mother placed side by side with what he owed to his father.

Only beloved, - literally “only,” but the word is used apparently (as in Genesis 22:2, Genesis 22:12) in its derived sense, “beloved like an only son.” The Vulgate gives “unigenitus.” Compare the words applied to our Lord, as the only begotten (John 1:14), the beloved (Ephesians 1:6).