Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.
Parallel translations
- WEB Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.
- BSB Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.
- NKJV Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid.
- NASB One who loves discipline loves knowledge, But one who hates rebuke is stupid.
- NLT To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
To love discipline is to love knowledge, but to hate correction is stupid. Teachability is essential to growing in wisdom.
Overview
This proverb bluntly contrasts the wise person who welcomes correction with the one who despises reproof and is therefore 'stupid,' or brutish. A willingness to be corrected is the gateway to knowledge. Such humble teachableness marks the disciple of Christ, who submits to God's loving discipline as a son or daughter.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Prov 15:10Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die.
- Prov 9:7–8He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.
- Ps 119:97–100O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
- Prov 5:12–13And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
- Prov 18:1Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
- Ps 32:9Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.
- Prov 8:17I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
- Ps 92:6A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
- 2 Th 2:10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
- Prov 2:10–11When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
- Isa 1:3The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
- Prov 8:32Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
- Ps 119:27Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 12:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.