Proverbs 5:12

12 and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!

Proverbs 5:12 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 5:12

And say, how have I hated instruction
To live virtuously, and avoid the adulterous woman; this he says, as wondering at his stupidity, folly, and madness, that he should hate and abhor that which was so much his interest to have observed. Gersom interprets it of the instruction of the law; but it is much better to understand it of the instruction of the Gospel; which the carnal mind of man is enmity unto, and which they are so stupid as to abhor; when it is of so much usefulness to preserve from error and heresy, superstition, will worship, and idolatry; and my heart despised reproof;
for following the whorish woman; and which was secretly despised in the heart, and heartily too, if not expressed with the mouth: it is one part of the Gospel ministry to reprove for false doctrine and false worship, though it generally falls under the contempt of the erroneous and idolatrous.

Proverbs 5:12 In-Context

10 lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and the fruits of thy toil [come] into the house of a stranger;

11 and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed;

12 and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!

13 and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me;

14 I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.