One who loves discipline loves knowledge, But one who hates rebuke is stupid.
Parallel translations
- WEB Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.
- KJV Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.
- 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.
- 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 15:10There is stern discipline for one who forsakes the way: whoever hates reproof shall die.
- Prov 9:7–8He who corrects a mocker invites insult. He who reproves a wicked man invites abuse.
- Ps 119:97–100How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.
- Prov 5:12–13and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
- Prov 18:1An unfriendly man pursues selfishness, and defies all sound judgment.
- Ps 32:9Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.
- Prov 8:17I love those who love me. Those who seek me diligently will find me.
- Ps 92:6A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this:
- 2 Th 2:10and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
- Prov 2:10–11For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
- Isa 1:3The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know, my people don’t consider.”
- Prov 8:32“Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways.
- Ps 119:27Let me understand the teaching of your precepts! Then I will meditate on your wondrous works.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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.