Proverbs 9 · a question people ask
"Don’t reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you" (9:8). Does Proverbs mean you should never correct a mocker?
The verse gives its reason: "lest he hate you" (9:8), and the verse before says what correcting a mocker brings: "One who corrects a mocker invites insult" (9:7). The same verse sets the other kind of person beside him: "Reprove a wise person, and he will love you" (9:8). Other sayings of the book come at the mocker from other sides. "A scoffer doesn’t love to be reproved; he will not go to the wise" (Proverbs 15:12), with the same Hebrew words for scoffer and reproved as 9:8. "Flog a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence" (Proverbs 19:25), and "When the mocker is punished, the simple gains wisdom" (Proverbs 21:11): in those two it is the simple who learn when the scoffer is punished. The book holds all of these, and these notes don't say how far any one of them reaches. Chapter 9 doesn't name anyone as a mocker, and these notes don't either.
The verses
“One who corrects a mocker invites insult. One who reproves a wicked man invites abuse. Don’t reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise person, and he will love you.”
“A scoffer doesn’t love to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.”
“Flog a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; rebuke one who has understanding, and he will gain knowledge.”
“When the mocker is punished, the simple gains wisdom. When the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.”