A mocker does not love to be reproved, nor will he consult the wise.
Parallel translations
- WEB A scoffer doesn’t love to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.
- KJV A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise.
- NKJV A scoffer does not love one who corrects him, Nor will he go to the wise.
- NASB A scoffer does not love one who rebukes him; He will not go to the wise.
- NLT Mockers hate to be corrected, so they stay away from the wise.
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
A scoffer resents correction and avoids the wise. Pride keeps the mocker from the help he needs.
Overview
The scorner dislikes being reproved and so shuns those who could teach him, cutting himself off from wisdom. His problem is not lack of opportunity but a proud, resistant heart. The proverb warns against the hardness that refuses counsel and commends instead the humility that welcomes it.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Amos 5:10There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.
- Job 21:14Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
- 2 Tim 4:3For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.
- Prov 9:7–8He who corrects a mocker brings shame on himself; he who rebukes a wicked man taints himself.
- John 7:7The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil.
- Prov 15:10Discipline is harsh for him who leaves the path; he who hates correction will die.
- John 3:18–21Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
- 2 Chr 18:7The king of Israel answered, “There is still one man who can ask the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 15:12 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.