A scoffer doesn’t love to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.
Parallel translations
- KJV A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise.
- BSB A mocker does not love to be reproved, nor will he consult 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 5:10They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.
- Job 21:14They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
- 2 Tim 4:3For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;
- Prov 9:7–8He who corrects a mocker invites insult. He who reproves a wicked man invites abuse.
- John 7:7The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.
- Prov 15:10There is stern discipline for one who forsakes the way: whoever hates reproof shall die.
- John 3:18–21He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
- 2 Chr 18:7The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil. He is Micaiah the son of Imla.” Jehoshaphat said, “Don’t let the king say so.”
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.