How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? Wisdom wishes, by a startling address, to arouse the sinfully simple ones out of their sleep of worldliness and apathy as to serious things. The physician must use strong stimulants to make the patient realize the greatness of his danger. How long is it until you cease to play the part of simpletons? You have been surely long enough slumbering; it is now high time to awake (Romans 13:11; Ephesians 5:14).
And the scorners delight in their scorning. The "scorners" who turn serious admonitions into contemptuous And the scorners delight in their scorning. The "scorners" who turn serious admonitions into contemptuous jesting, is a further and more irreclaimable stage of impiety than that of "the simple ones." They form the third stage in the climax in Psalms 1:1; cf. Proverbs 29:8; Isaiah 28:14-15. There is a change from the second to the third persons, from directly addressing to speaking of them, whereby Wisdom puts them to a greater distance from her, counting them unworthy of direct address.
And fools hate knowledge? "Fools" х kªciyliym (H3684)] - literally, those crooked and depraved, those of moral obliquity, who are incorrigible, and therefore not to be answered by the wise (Proverbs 17:10; Proverbs 26:4) - a distinct Hebrew word from that in Proverbs 1:7 х 'ªwiyliym (H191)], which means fools in general.