Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 14:6
A scorner seeketh wisdom, and [findeth it] not: but knowledge [is] easy unto him that understandeth.
6. findeth it not ] Lit. and it is not ( there)! Only to the lowly and reverent does Wisdom reveal herself. Comp. Mat 11:25.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Findeth it not – literally, there is none. The successful pursuit of wisdom presupposes at least earnestness and reverence. The scoffer shuts himself out from the capacity of recognizing truth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 14:6
A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not.
Secularism
It is the constant profession of those who reject the Bible that they are seeking truth. They seek wisdom and do not find it. They want the first qualification of a philosopher, a humble and teachable spirit. There is a race of men amongst us at the present day who scorn bitterly faiths meek submission to Gods revealed will. They desire to be free from authority. The divinity, as they phrase it, is in every man. If men really were independent beings, it would be right to assert and proclaim their independence. But the problem for man is, not to reject all masters, but to accept the rightful one. Those who scorn the wisdom from above seek laboriously for the wisdom that is beneath. The name secularist is adopted to indicate that they appreciate and study the knowledge that concerns the present world, and repudiate as unattainable or useless all knowledge that pertains to another. Secularism is Latin for this-world-ism. Before we adopt this philosophy we must be sure that there is immortality for man. If there is another world, our course here will affect our condition there. It is by faith in the unseen that men steer through the shifting sea of time. Cut us off from the future, and you have left the ship without a chart, and without a store; without a compass to steer by, and without a harbour to steer for; you have left the ship an aimless, meaningless, log lying on the water, to be tossed up and down by the waves, and driven hither and thither by the winds, until it fall asunder or sink unseen. (W. Arnot, D.D.)
The proud and scornful incapable of attaining wisdom
I. The character of a scorner. The following ingredients in it:
1. Pride. An undue desire of honour, or an overvaluing ones self, and undervaluing of others. It is the source of undutiful behaviour towards God. It is discovered by affecting a pre-eminence above their fellows. Some claim honour on account of their actual knowledge or their capacity of investigating and discerning truth. To some religion is itself the subject of glorying and vain elation of mind.
2. Contempt of religion and virtue (2Pe 3:3-4).
II. The obstruction which arises from scorning to mens becoming wise.
1. Pride is a great hindrance both to the attainment of knowledge and virtue. Especially is the man who is proud of his wisdom and his religion the farthest off from becoming truly wise and religious.
2. This perverse disposition rendereth men obnoxious to the displeasure of God, and entirely disqualified for receiving favour from Him. Only application is to exhort you to humility, as a most necessary qualification for your increase in useful knowledge, and in every Christian virtue. There may be mistaken notions of humility. It is far from consisting in any such sentiments as disparage human nature, or any such temper and behaviour as are unworthy its dignity. We must not degrade ourselves into a lower species that we may be humble men. With respect to God, it consists in a just sense of our own subjection and dependence, of our own weakness and guilt. This disposition will entitle us to the favour of God and the approbation of all good men. (J. Abernethy, M.A.)
A scorner incapable of true wisdom
I. Who is represented here under the character of scorner? Scorners were men who, with much ado, had made a shift to get rid of good principles, and such stiff opinions as they found inconsistent with a loose practice. As they had not any religion themselves, so their way was to despise those who had. The scorner is said to seek wisdom and not to find it He pretends to know more, to have made freer inquiries after truth, and to have shaken off the prejudices of education more thoroughly than other people.
II. In what sense he cannot find wisdom. Four things unfit such a man for impartial inquiries after Divine truth–a very proud, or a very suspicious temper, false wit, or sensuality. The two last generally belong to him; but the two first are essential to him, and inseparable from him. There is no quality that sticks more closely to a scorner than pride, and nothing more evidently obstructs right reasoning. Suspicion makes him doubt everything he hears and distrust every man he converses with. An extremity of suspicion in an inquirer after truth is like a raging jealousy in a husband or a friend; it leads a man to turn all his thoughts towards the ill-natured side, and to put the worst construction upon everything. False wit is a way of exposing things sacred and serious, by passing a bold jest upon them and ridiculing arguments instead of comforting them. The sensual man is, of all men living, the most improper for inquiries after truth and the least at leisure for it. He is never sedate and cool, disinterested and impartial. (Bp. Atterbury.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. A scorner seeketh wisdom] I believe the scorner means, in this book, the man that despises the counsel of God; the infidel. Such may seek wisdom; but he never can find it, because he does not seek it where it is to be found; neither in the teaching of God’s Spirit, nor in the revelation of his will.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A scorner; a proud, self-conceited, and profane person.
Findeth it not, because he doth not seek it aright, to wit, sincerely, and earnestly, and seasonably, and in a constant and diligent use of all the means which God hath appointed to that end, and with an honest intention of employing his knowledge to the service of God, and the furtherance of his practice of religion.
Knowledge is easy unto him, is plain and easily attained by him,
that understandeth; that knoweth and is deeply sensible of his own want of knowledge, and of the great worth and necessity of knowledge, which will make him use all possible means to it, and, among other ways, pray earnestly to God for it. Or, that is honest and pious; for words of knowledge are oft understood practically, especially in this book.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. An humble, teachable spiritsucceeds in seeking (Pro 8:9;Joh 7:17; Jas 1:5;Jas 1:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A scorner seeketh wisdom, and [findeth it] not,…. So the scornful Greeks, that scoffed at the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel, sought natural wisdom, and thought they found it, and professed they had; but professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and with all their wisdom knew not God; and false teachers, that boasted of their evangelical wisdom, and of their great attainments in Gospel light, and derided others, were ever learning, and never came to the knowledge of the truth; and the scornful Jews, that mocked at the true Messiah, would seek him, the Wisdom of God, as they have done, and find him not; see Joh 7:34; Men often seek for wisdom in a wrong way and manner, in the use of wrong means; and seek it of wrong persons, and to wrong ends and purposes, and so seek amiss and find not; and some seek for wisdom, even evangelical wisdom, in a scornful manner, in a jeering sarcastic way, as the scoffing Athenians did, Ac 17:18; and find it not, nor Christ the substance of it, and so perish for lack of knowledge of him;
but knowledge [is] easy unto him that understandeth; the knowledge of Wisdom, or of Christ, is easy to him that has a spiritual understanding given him; the knowledge of the Gospel, and the doctrines of it, is easy to him to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; there is nothing perverse or froward in the words and doctrines of Christ; they are all plain to man whose understanding is opened by the Spirit of God; especially such as relate to the glory of Christ’s person, and to the way of life and salvation by him; see Pr 8:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6 In vain the scorner seeketh wisdom;
But to the man of understanding knowledge is easy.
The general sentence is concrete, composed in the common historical form. Regarding , necquidquam , vid., at Pro 13:4. The participle is here neut. for , something which makes itself easy or light. The frivolous man, to whom truth is not a matter of conscience, and who recognises no authority, not even the Supreme, never reaches to truth notwithstanding all his searching, it remains veiled to him and far remote; but to the man of understanding, who knows that the fear of God and not estrangement from God leads to truth, knowledge is an easy matter – he enters on the right way to this end, he brings the right receptivity, brings to bear on it the clear eye, and there is fulfilled to him the saying, “To him that hath it is given.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
6 A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.
Note, 1. The reason why some people seek wisdom, and do not find it, is because they do not seek it from a right principle and in a right manner. They are scorners, and it is in scorn that they ask instruction, that they may ridicule what is told them and may cavil at it. Many put questions to Christ, tempting him, and that they might have whereof to accuse him, but they were never the wiser. No marvel if those who seek wisdom, as Simon Magus sought the gifts of the Holy Ghost, to serve their pride and covetousness, do not find it, for they seek amiss. Herod desired to see a miracle, but he was a scorner, and therefore it was denied him, Luke xxiii. 8. Scorners speed not in prayer. 2. To those who understand aright, who depart from evil (for that is understanding), the knowledge of God and of his will is easy. The parables which harden scorners in their scorning, and make divine things more difficult to them, enlighten those who are willing to learn, and make the same things more plain, and intelligible, and familiar to them, Mat 13:11; Mat 13:15; Mat 13:16. The same word which to the scornful is a savour of death unto death to the humble and serious is a savour of life unto life. He that understands, so as to depart from evil (for that is understanding), to quit his prejudices, to lay aside all corrupt dispositions and affections, will easily apprehend instruction and receive the impressions of it.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Wisdom Gained or Scorned
Verse 6 explains that the scorner fails to find wisdom because he seeks with scorn for the LORD (Mat 13:15; 1Co 1:28; 1Co 2:7-8) rather than with the submissive reverence (Fear of the LORD), which is the beginning of knowledge, understanding and wisdom, Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10. Wisdom comes easy to those who seek from the true source, Pro 1:20-23; Pro 17:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Benefits of Right Relationship With the Lord
Verses 26 and 27 refer to benefits bestowed upon those who fear (have a right attitude toward) the LORD (see comment on Pro 1:7 a). These benefits are a sense of Divine watchcare that provides physical safety in the stresses of life and assures eternal security beyond this life. Such confidence is seen in the experiences of Abraham, Heb 11:17-19; Hebrew children, Dan 3:17-27; Paul, 2Ti 4:6-8. These assurances are a fountain of life, a source of spiritual enrichment that protect from the traps that ensnare those without a right relationship with the LORD. See comment on Pro 13:14; Pro 16:22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 14:6
SEEKING, BUT NOT FINDING
I. A contradictory charactera scorner in quest of wisdom. It would be strange to hear a man ask advice of a physician whose opinion he held in contempt, or to ask guidance of a traveller whose judgment and ability he despised. It would be obvious that the advice given or the rules laid down would not be followed. So a scorner, while he seeks wisdom, scorns the only method of becoming wise, He asks advice of those whom he despises, he inquires the way to wisdom, while he holds the road to it in utter contempt. The antithesis of the verse implies that he does not find wisdom because he lacks understandingbecause he finds it above his comprehension. Two children may be equally ignorant of knowledge, but if one has the desire and the will to acquire it, and the other has not, what was hard to both at first will only continue hard to him who despises knowledge. So the scorner fails to find wisdom because he does not value it enough to make an effort to acquire it. The spirit in which he seeks is an effectual barrier against his finding.
II. A man of teachable spirit is the only one who will ever find wisdom. The man of understanding knows its value, and therefore scorns neither it nor the means of attaining it. Therefore, to him knowledge becomes easy. A clever man and a dull one may be pupils of the same master, but if the clever one thinks that he needs no instruction and the dull one feels his need, what was above the comprehension of both at first will become easy to the teachable scholar, while it will still remain out of the reach of the self-sufficient one. Even a dull but willing pupil will learn faster than one who has intellectual ability, but lacks the docile spirit. A seeker of wisdom in any department of knowledge must become in relation to it as a child before his teacher; he must acknowledge his ignorance, and be willing to submit to the conditions of acquiring knowledge. The same spirit is indispensable for the attainment of moral wisdom. Those who would learn of Christ must take His yoke; those who would know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, must be willing to do His will (Mat. 11:29; Joh. 7:17).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The Greeks sought after wisdom, but Christ crucified was foolishness to them. They were already too wise to admit of the preaching of the cross, and scorned a tent-maker who would inform them of new doctrines which had never entered into their own minds, and who would prove them by other methods than their favourite oneseloquence and reasoning.Lawson.
There are two descriptions of scorners. There are scorners of truth, from pride of intellect; and there are scorners of authority, from the pride of self-will. They are nearly allied, and they are frequently united. It is the former that is chiefly meant here, seeing the subject is knowledge rather than duty.Wardlaw.
A page of Hebrew, what is it to a child? It is absolutely nothing. But the whole was easy to the Hebrew eye. A scorner has sought wisdom. Notice the past sense. Every scorner has done it. Take any impenitent man. We may be sure some day or other he has sought spiritual intelligence. But he has done it selfishly. Moreover, he has done it fitfully and feebly. He has groped. He has made a sort of blind mans pass for knowledge, and has come back with the averment that there is no such thing. Light is simple, easy; literally, light as opposed to heavy; light is obvious; nothing can be more so; but then, as the inspired man advises us, it is only easy to the discerning, or understanding, man.Miller.
It is not by a one-sided action of the thinking power, but only by undivided consecration of the whole nature to God, which therefore involves, above all other things, a right relation of the spiritual nature to Him, that true knowledge in Divine things can be attained. The wise man, however, who has found the true beginning of wisdom, in bowing his inmost will before the Divine, not as something to be mastered by the understanding, but as something to be simply sought as a grace by the renunciation of the very self; he can easily on this ground, which Gods own power makes productive, attain a rich development of the understanding.Elster.
Wisdom estrangeth herself from the scorner, as a gentlewoman hideth herself from a suitor whom she fancieth not. As a loving spouse, when he cometh to the door, whom she affecteth, will show herself to him and run to meet him, so the grace of Gods spirit offereth itself, and draweth near unto the humble and modest.Muffet.
By knowledge we may understand, not the knowledge of the letter floating in the brain, and flowing even at the tongues end (which, indeed, is not worth the name of knowledge); but the true understanding of the word taught by the Spirit, which entereth into the heart, and worketh on the affections, frameth to obedience, and assureth of everlasting life. This, indeed, is healthful knowledge, which the scorners, though they seek, shall never obtain. And hereunto doth our Saviour give witness, when He saith: Many shall seek to enter in, and cannot.Greenham.
The finding of wisdom is that which needeth help from others. More eyes than the eyes of one are requisite unto it. And, therefore, a scorner, who seeketh it with scorning of anothers help; yea, who scorneth not only the help of man, but of God also, how can he ever find it? If it be offered to him by another, he will not accept it, and if he seek it never so much in his own ways he shall not obtain it. It is, says Clemens Alexandrinus, to draw out threads and to spin nothing; and, therefore, whensoever he shall stand in need of it, he shall not find it, for wisdom and a scorner shall never meet. But to him that understandeth his own defects and infirmities, to him that understandeth how to make use of other mens abilities, and that in the seeking of wisdom, the assistance of God is chiefly to be sought, to him it is a short course to come to it; to him it is an easy matter to obtain it.Jermin.
It is the constant profession of those who read the Bible that they are seeking truth. Their likeness is taken here from life. They seek wisdom, but do not find it. They want the first qualification of a philosopher, a humble and teachable spirit. There is a race of men among us at the present day who scorn bitterly against faiths meek submission to Gods revealed will. The divinity, they say, is in every man; which means that every man is a god unto himself. It is, in its essence, a reproduction of the oldest rebellion. A creature discontented with the place which his Maker has given him strives to make himself a god. If men really were independent beings, it would be right to assert and proclaim their independence; but as matters really stand, this desperate kicking against authority becomes the exposure of weakness, and the punishment of pride. We are not our own cause and our own end; we are not our own lords. We are in the hands of our Maker, and under the law of our Judge. Our only safety lies in submission to the rightful authority and obedience to the true law. The problem for man is, not to reject all masters, but to accept the rightful one. In these days, when the pendulum is often seen swinging from scepticism over to superstition, and from superstition back to scepticism again, we would do well to remember that there is truth between these extremes, and that in truth alone lies safety for all the interests of men. I see two men near each other prostrate on the ground and bleeding, while one man stands between them, with serenest aspect looking to the skies. Who and what are these? The two prostrate forms are superstition and unbelief. Superstition bowed down to worship his idol, and cut his flesh with stones to atone for his souls sin. Unbelief scorned to be confined, like an inferior creature, to the earth, and was ever leaping up in the hope of standing on the stars. Exhausted by his efforts he fell, and the fall bruised him, so that he lay as low as the neighbour whom he despised. He who stands between them neither bowed himself to the ground, nor attempted to scale the heavens. He neither degraded himself beneath a mans place, nor attempted to raise himself above it. He abode on earth, but he stood erect there. He did not proudly profess to be, but meekly sought to find God. This man understands his place, and feels his need; to him, therefore, knowledge is easy. To him that hath shall be given. He has the beginning of wisdom, and he will reach in good time its glad consummation. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom.Arnot.
There are four things that particularly unfit a man for such a task (the finding of wisdom), viz., a very proud, or a very suspicious temper, false wit or sensuality. The two last generally belong to the man whom we call a scorner, the two first are essential to him and inseparable from him. Pride makes a man seem sufficient in his own eyes for all manner of speculations and inquiries, and hence it comes that he, not being duly qualified for every search, is fain to take up with light and superficial accounts of things, and then, what he wants in true knowledge, to make up in downright assurance. By consequence it gives him just enough understanding to raise an objection, but not enough to lay it; which, as it is the most despicable, so it is also the most dangerous state of mind a man can be in. He that is but half a philosopher is in danger of being an atheist; a half physician is apt to turn empiric. In all matters of speculation or practice, he that knows but little of them, and is very confident of his own strength, is more out of the way of true knowledge than if he knew nothing at all. And in this character there is always a strange and unreasonable suspicion, by which he doubts everything he hears, and distrusts every man he converses with. He is so afraid of having his understanding imposed upon in matters of faith that he stands aloof from all propositions of that kind, whether true or false. Which is, as if a man should refuse to receive any money because there is a great deal of counterfeit; or resolve not to make friendship with any man, because many are not to be trusted. A third part of a scorners character is a false wit, a way of ridiculing arguments instead of confuting them, and a fourth is sensuality. That this, too, does for the most part accompany a contempt of religion, I appeal to the observation and experience of every man.Bp. Atterbury.
He seeks it as a coward seeks his adversary, with a hope that he shall not find him; or as a man seeks his false coin, which he hath no joy to look upon. What is truth? said Pilate in a jeer to Christ, but stayed not the answer. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? said the carnal Capernaites (Joh. 6:52), and away they wentwho, if they had stayed out the sermon, might have been satisfied on the point. He that comes to the fountain to fill his pitcher must first wash it, and then put the mouth of it downwards to take up water. So he that would have heavenly knowledge must first quit his heart of corrupt affections and high conceits, and then humble himself at Gods feet, everyone to receive His words (Deu. 33:3).Trapp.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(6) A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not.Because God resisteth the proud (1Pe. 5:5), and none can give wisdom but He who alone has it (1Co. 2:11); but He teaches him that feareth the Lord (Psa. 25:11).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. And findeth it not Literally, and none, that is, for him. Wisdom reveals herself to true seekers; not to scoffers. There are those who treat instruction contemptously, affecting to be above the need of it. Such will never be truly wise. Those who do not think themselves too wise to be instructed readily attain to knowledge. Compare Pro 8:17; Psa 25:9. The scorner, or scoffer, represents the frivolous, superficial, or irreverent sceptic, who pretends to candid inquiry, but has no real desire to know the truth, and hence only seeks for more ground of cavil. (Miller.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 6. A scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 14:6. A scorner seeketh wisdom, &c. He that comes to seek after knowledge, says Lord Bacon, with a mind to scorn and censure, shall be sure to find matter enough for his humour, but none for instruction; one reason of which is, that this humour of deriding all things, in men of this kind, springs from a great pride and conceit of their own wit, which disposes them to seek for wisdom, not from others, but wholly from themselves; and so, as the wise man observes, they are not likely to find it where it is not to be had: when he who attributes less to himself, and hath the humility to listen to instruction, in a short time attains to great wisdom. See Advancement of Learning, b. vii. c. 2. and Bishop Patrick.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth. Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.
This verse of fools making a mock at sin, is very expressive: for surely none but fools can do so; to laugh at that which offends God, ruins men, and which nothing but the blood of Christ can expiate; this must be supreme folly indeed.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 14:6 A scorner seeketh wisdom, and [findeth it] not: but knowledge [is] easy unto him that understandeth.
Ver. 6. A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not. ] Or, He seeketh wisdom, and he seeketh it not. He seeketh it not seriously, seasonably, duly; he seeks it as a coward seeks his adversary, with a hope he shall not find him; or a man seeks his false coin, which he hath no joy to look upon. “What is truth?” said Pilate in a jeer to Christ, but stayed not for the answer. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” said those carnal Capernaites, Joh 6:52 and away they went, who, if they had stayed out the sermon, might have been satisfied in the point. Herod sought to see Christ, but never sent for him, nor went to him; and when the Lord Christ was brought before him, he looked upon him no otherwise than as upon some magician to show him some tricks and make him sport, and is therefore answered with silence.
But knowledge is easy to him that doth understand.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
seeketh = every scorner hath sought repeatedly. Note the past tense.
and flndeth it not. Illustrations: the Pharisees (Joh 9:29. Compare Pro 7:52, and 1Co 2:14); Jews (Act 13:41, Act 13:45); Athenians (1Co 1:23; 1Co 2:8).
understandeth = is discerning. Illustration: Ethiopian (Act 8:27-39).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 14:6
Pro 14:6
The scoffer, the vain and wicked man who recognizes no authority, not even the supreme authority of God’s Word, will never acquire any real wisdom and understanding. “For ever it remains for him far and remote. To the man of understanding, “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it” (Deu 30:14). Wisdom is as near to the man of understanding as a copy of the Bible.
Pro 14:6. A scoffer is strong on his own ideas and reluctant to take the word of others. Learning is not gullible, but there is still a strong element of trust involved in learning, which the scoffer does not have. Therefore, he cuts himself off from some wisdom that he could have if he were otherwise in attitude. But it is much easier for an humble man of understanding to increase his knowledge, for he has no barrier of pride. One who has understanding easily picks up additional knowledge from what he reads, hears, studies, and is instructed in, for he can understand and comprehend what he comes in contact with. See Pro 9:9; Pro 17:24.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
scorner: Pro 18:2, Pro 26:12, Isa 8:20, Jer 8:9, Mat 6:22, Mat 6:23, Mat 11:25-27, Rom 1:21-28, Rom 9:31, Rom 9:32, 1Co 3:18, 1Co 3:19, 1Co 8:2, 2Pe 3:3-5
knowledge: Pro 8:9, Pro 17:24, Psa 119:18, Psa 119:98-100, Mat 13:11, Mat 13:12, Jam 1:5
Reciprocal: Pro 1:22 – the scorners Pro 13:1 – but Pro 17:16 – seeing Pro 24:7 – too Amo 8:12 – shall run Luk 13:24 – for 1Co 2:14 – neither 2Ti 3:7 – learning
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 14:6-7. A scorner A proud, self-conceited, and profane person; seeketh wisdom and findeth it not Because he doth not seek it aright, namely, sincerely, earnestly, and seasonably, and in a constant and diligent use of all the means which God hath appointed to that end; and with an honest intention of employing his knowledge in the service of God, and for the furtherance of true religion. But knowledge is easy unto him That is, is plain, and easily attained by him; that understandeth That knows, and is deeply sensible of his own want of it, and of its great worth and necessity, which will make him use all possible diligence in seeking it, and, among other means, in praying earnestly to God for it. Go from the presence of a foolish man Avoid the company and conversation of the ungodly. When thou perceivest not the lips of knowledge When they break forth into foolish or wicked speeches, lest thou either be infected by them, or seem to approve them.