“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
English Standard Version (ESV)
Wisdom isn't just calling out bad behavior; she's exposing the joy people find in their own destruction, highlighting how the simple love their ignorance, scorners delight in their mockery, and fools actively hate anything that could enlighten them. This isn't just a lack of wisdom, but a passionate embrace of foolishness, a self-deception that finds pleasure in its own chains.
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
English Standard Version (ESV)
Wisdom herself is speaking here, directly addressing three types of people who reject her call to understanding. This verse follows the initial presentation of Wisdom's invitation and the warnings against ignoring it, now personifying Wisdom as she confronts those who are easily deceived, those who mock godly instruction, and those who stubbornly refuse to learn. She challenges their persistent folly, setting the stage for her subsequent call to repentance and the promise of understanding.
Wisdom calls out to three different kinds of people. Do you recognize yourself or others in these descriptions?
The book of Proverbs often categorizes people by their spiritual disposition. Here, Wisdom addresses:
Wisdom presents these as a progression, moving from innocent naiveté to active, hardened rebellion against truth.
Why would anyone love being simple, delight in mocking, or hate knowing what's true? Wisdom probes the appeal of these dangerous states.
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Wisdom's question, 'How long... will you love... delight... hate?' is not just a rhetorical device. It highlights the active choice involved in rejecting truth.
Each of these 'loves,' 'delights,' and 'hates' represents a willful attachment to a path that leads away from life and truth.
Understand the original words
pĕthiy · Hebrew Noun
In Proverbs, this refers to those who lack moral discernment and spiritual maturity. They are easily influenced and prone to folly because they have not yet committed themselves to the pursuit of wisdom.
lēts · Hebrew Noun
An attitude of arrogant pride and cynicism, characterized by mocking God, His word, or wisdom. Scoffers are willfully antagonistic toward truth and often beyond the reach of correction.
kĕsiyl · Hebrew Noun
In biblical terms, a fool is not a person lacking intelligence, but one who lacks moral and spiritual insight. It refers to a person whose life is characterized by a persistent refusal to acknowledge God or His law, leading to destructive choices.
da‘ath · Hebrew Noun
The fundamental prerequisite for godliness and moral living. It represents both intellectual understanding of the world and, more importantly, the experiential, reverential knowledge of the Lord that guides conduct.
This passage also describes different types of people, paralleling the 'simple,' 'scoffers,' and 'fools' with the 'wicked' who walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of mockers.
Proverbs 9:7-8Wisdom calls out those who correct a scoffer, stating they will only receive abuse in return, directly highlighting the scoffers' unresponsiveness to correction that Proverbs 1:22 laments.
Isaiah 28:14The prophet Isaiah confronts leaders who are like the 'scoffers' in Proverbs, mocking God's word and making a covenant with death, showing this pattern of arrogant rejection of truth extends beyond Proverbs.
Luke 11:29-30Jesus addresses a crowd seeking a sign, calling them an 'evil and adulterous generation' who hate knowledge and reject His teaching, mirroring the 'fools' and 'scoffers' who refuse to turn to Wisdom.
bensonProverbs 1:22: "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?"
Proverbs 1:22-23 . How long, ye simple ones — Ye ignorant, careless, and credulous persons, who are so easily deceived by sin and sinners, and cheated and deluded by the world, and the god of it, and do not understand or consider your own interest; will ye love simplicity? — Being unwilling to part with it, or to be made wise. And the scorners — That scoff at…
clarkeProverbs 1:22: "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?"
Ye simple ones - פתים pethayim, ye who have been seduced and deceived. See on Proverbs 1:4 (note).
Wisdom isn't just calling out bad behavior; she's exposing the joy people find in their own destruction, highlighting how the simple love their ignorance, scorners delight in their mockery, and fools actively hate anything that could enlighten them. This isn't just a lack of wisdom, but a passionate embrace of foolishness, a self-deception that finds pleasure in its own chains.
Wisdom herself is speaking here, directly addressing three types of people who reject her call to understanding. This verse follows the initial presentation of Wisdom's invitation and the warnings against ignoring it, now personifying Wisdom as she confronts those who are easily deceived, those who mock godly instruction, and those who stubbornly refuse to learn. She challenges their persistent folly, setting the stage for her subsequent call to repentance and the promise of understanding.
Wisdom herself is speaking here, directly addressing three types of people who reject her call to understanding. This verse follows the initial presentation of Wisdom's invitation and the warnings against ignoring it, now personifying Wisdom as she confronts those who are easily deceived, those who mock godly instruction, and those who stubbornly refuse to learn. She challenges their persistent folly, setting the stage for her subsequent call to repentance and the promise of understanding.
"“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?" — Wisdom isn't just calling out bad behavior; she's exposing the joy people find in their own destruction, highlighting how the simple love their ignorance, scorners delight in their mockery, and…
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Last reviewed October 2026