Proverbs 9:7

7. Reproveth Correcteth.

A scorner This seemingly abrupt transition is like that in Proverbs 1:24, where see note. It probably implies a dramatic pause, in which certain things, readily imagined, are supposed to have taken place; namely, the acceptance of the invitation by some, the rejection of it, with contempt and scorn, by others. Hence the severe reflections that follow on the one hand, in this verse and the next, and the commendations and consoling ones on the other, in Proverbs 9:9, et seq. The words are evidently intended as the language of Wisdom, as appears from the 11th and 12th verses, and not of the writer in his own per-son.

Shame Or, contempt; that is, from the scoffer.

A blot Patrick, in his old-fashioned way, expresses the idea: “Whoever rebukes (warns) one of these impious wretches hath commonly all the dirt thrown upon him that their malice can rake together.” It is not probable that the “scorner” and the “wicked” here mean classes of persons very variant in their character, or of different degrees of baseness; nor that “shame” and “blot” are of different degrees of intensity. It is what is called the parallelism synonymous, wherein the idea of the first member is usually only slightly varied or modified in the second, for esthetic ends.