Proverbs 15:12

15:11. There is nothing that can be hid from the eyes of God, not even man's thoughts. 12. A scorner cannot bear to reflect seriously within his own heart. 13. A gloomy, impatient, unthankful spirit, springing from pride and undue attachment to worldly objects, renders a man uneasy to himself and others.

A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him,.... He that makes a jest of religion; scoffs at godliness and godly men; treats the Gospel and the ministers of it with contempt; makes a mock at good men, and all that is good; a pestilent fellow, as the Vulgate Latin version: such an one not only does not love, for more is intended than is expressed; but hates him that reproves him, and especially if publicly, Amos 5:10 ; he thinks ill of him; bears him a grudge, and abhors him; and speaks evil of him, and reproaches him; and does all he can to the injury of his person and name; hence the advice of the wise man, Proverbs 9:7 . Some render it, he "loves not reproving himself", or "to reprove himself" (b); he does not care to look into his own heart and ways, or to call himself to an account for what he does; nor to check himself in the pursuit of sin, nor argue with and reprove himself for it; neither will he go unto the wise; to the private houses of wise and good men; nor to the house of wisdom, or place of public instruction, where wise dispensers of the word give good advice and counsel; scorners do not choose to go to either, lest they should be reproved for their evil ways, and be advised leave them; neither of which is agreeable to them; see John 3:20. (b) "corripere", Gejerus.

Loveth not, i.e. hateth and avoideth it; for more is here understood than is expressed, as it is Proverbs 11:21 12:3 , and elsewhere. Neither will he go unto, seek their company and conversation, as his duty and interest obligeth him, the wise, i.e. the godly, because he knows they who are so indeed will make conscience of reproving him.

Verse 12. - A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him ( Proverbs 9:8 ; Amos 5:10 ). For "scorner" the Vulgate has pestilens , and the Septuagint ἀπαίδευτος , "undisciplined." "Scorners" are spoken of elsewhere, as Proverbs 1:22 (where see note); they are conceited, arrogant persons, free-thinkers, indifferent to or sceptical of religion, and too self-opinionated to be open to advice or reproof. Neither will he go unto the wise, who would correct and teach him ( Proverbs 13:20 ). Septuagint, "He will not converse ( ὁμιλήσει ) with the wise." He does not believe the maxim - Σοφοῦ παρ ἀνδρὸς χρὴ σοφόν τι μανθάνειν . "From a wise man you must some wisdom learn." A Latin adage runs - "Argue consultum, te diliget: argue stultumAvertet vultum, nec te dimittet iuultum." Proverbs 15:12

The scorner loveth not that one reprove him: To wise men he goeth not; - and by the contrast, which prevails in the Book of Proverbs, between לץ (mocker) and חכם (wise), in which we see that, at the same time with the striving after wisdom, scepticism also, which we call free thought, obtained a great ascendency in Israel. Mockery of religion, rejection of God in principle and practice, a casting away of all fear of Jahve, and in general of all δεισιδαιμονία, were in Israel phenomena which had already marked the times of David. One may see from the Psalms that the community of the Davidic era is to be by no means regarded as furnishing a pattern of religious life: that there were in it גּוים (Gentile nations) which were in no way externally inferior to them, and that it did not want for rejecters of God. But it is natural to expect that in the Solomonic era, which was more than any other exposed to the dangers of sensuality and worldliness, and of religious indifference and free-thinking latitudinarianism, the number of the לצים increased, and that scepticism and mockery became more intensified. The Solomonic era appears to have first coined the name of לץ for those men who despised that which was holy, and in doing so laid claim to wisdom (Proverbs 14:6), who caused contention and bitterness when they spake, and carefully avoided the society of the חכמים, because they thought themselves above their admonitions (Proverbs 15:12).

For in the psalms of the Davidic time the word נבל is commonly used for them (it occurs in the Proverbs only in Proverbs 17:21, with the general meaning of low fellow, Germ. Bube), and the name לץ is never met with except once, in Psalm 1:1, which belongs to the post-Davidic era. One of the Solomonic proverbs (Proverbs 21:24) furnishes a definite idea of this newly formed word: An inflated arrogant man they call a scorner (לץ), One who acts in the superfluity of haughtiness. By the self-sufficiency of his ungodly thoughts and actions he is distinguished from the פּתי (simple), who is only misled, and may therefore be reclaimed, Proverbs 19:25; Proverbs 21:11; by his non-recognition of the Holy in opposition to a better knowledge and better means and opportunities, he is distinguished from the כּסיל (foolish, stupid), Proverbs 17:16, the אויל (foolish, wicked), Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 7:22, and the חסר לב (the void of understanding), Proverbs 6:32, who despise truth and instruction from want of understanding, narrowness, and forgetfulness of God, but not from perverse principle.