Proverbs 5:12

12 and say, Why loathed I teaching, and mine heart assented not to blamings; (and thou say, Why did I loathe discipline, and why did I not listen to rebukes;)

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 peradventure strangers be filled with thy strengths, and lest (the rewards of) thy travails be in an alien's house; (lest perhaps strangers take all thy wealth, and the rewards of all thy efforts be in someone else's house;)
11 and thou bewail in the last days, when thou hast wasted thy flesh, and thy body;
12 and say, Why loathed I teaching, and mine heart assented not to blamings; (and thou say, Why did I loathe discipline, and why did I not listen to rebukes;)
13 neither I heard the voice of men teaching me, and I bowed not down mine ear to masters?
14 Almost I was in all-evil, in the midst of the church, and of the synagogue. (I was almost uniformly despised, in the midst of the congregation, and among those in the assembly.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.