Proverbs Chapter 1 verse 22 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 22. - How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? etc. From this verse to the end of the chapter the sacred writer puts before us the words of Wisdom herself. The discourse begins in the same way as in Psalm 4:2 (Zockler), and the classification of the persons addressed - the simple, the scorners, and the sinners - closely resembles that of Psalm 1:1. In the order there is a progression from the least to the most culpable. The simple (פְתָיִם, p'thayim), as in ver. 4, those who are indifferent through thoughtlessness and inconsiderateness, and are thereby open to evil. The scorners (לֵצֵים, letsim); or, mockers, the same as the (לָצון, latson) "scornful men" of Proverbs 29:8, derived from the root לּוּצ (luts), "to deride, mock," probably by imitating the voice in derision. The mockers are those who hold all things in derision, both human and Divine, who contemn God's admonitions, and treat with ridicule both threatenings and promises alike. Fools; כְסִילִים (ch'silim), a different word from the evilim of ver. 7, but signifying much the same, i.e. the obdurate, the hardened, stolidi, those who walk after the sight of their eyes and the imagination of their hearts - a class not ignorant of knowledge, but hating it because of the restraint it puts them under. The word occurs in Proverbs 17:10, in the sense of the incorrigible; in Proverbs 26:3, 4 as a term of the greatest contempt. The enallage, or interchange of tenses in the original - the verbs "love" and "hate" being future, and "delight" being perfect - is not reproducible in English. The perfect is used interchangeably with the future where the action or state is represented as first coming to pass or in progress, and, as Zockler remarks, may be inchoative, and so be rendered "become fond of," instead of "be fond of." But it appears to represent not so much a state or action first coming to pass as in progress (see Geseuius, 'Gram.,' § 126, 3). Bottcher (§ 948, 2) translates it by concupiverint, i.e. "How long shall ye have delighted in scorning?" The futures express "love" and "hate" as habitual sentiments (Delitzsch). It is to be noted that the language of Wisdom, in vers. 22 and 23, is expressive of the most tender and earnest solicitude.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(22) How long . . .--Three classes of persons are here addressed: (1) simple ones, open to good influences, but also to evil (Proverbs 1:4); (2) scorners (l?tsim), men who despised what was holy, priding themselves on their cleverness in so doing (Proverbs 14:6), who avoided the wise, and held themselves above their advice (Proverbs 15:12), proud, arrogant men (Proverbs 21:24). The name first appears at the time of Solomon, when the prosperity of the nation was favourable to the growth of religious indifference and scepticism. Isaiah had to deal with them in his day, too (Isaiah 28:14). (3) Fools (khesilim), dull, stupid persons, stolidly confident in their own wisdom.