Proverbs 18:2

A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself. A FOOL HATH NO DELIGHT IN UNDERSTANDING (FOR ITS OWN SAKE), BUT THAT HIS HEART MAY DISCOVER ITSELF. Display of self is his aim....

Verse Proverbs 18:2. _BUT THAT HIS HEART MAY DISCOVER ITSELF._] It is a fact that most vain and foolish people are never satisfied in company, but in showing their own _nonsense_ and _emptiness_. But this verse may be understood as confirming the view already given of the preceding, and may be translated thus: "But a fool doth not delight in understanding, though it should even manifest itself:" so I understand כי אם בהתגלות _ki im behithgalloth_. The _separated_ _person_ seeks understanding in every hidden thing, and feels his toil well repaid when he finds it, even after the most painful and expensive search: the other regards it not, though its _secret_ _springs_ should be _laid open to him_ without toil or expense....

Another form of egotism. In “understanding,” i. e., self-knowledge, the “fool” finds no pleasure; but self-assertion, talking about himself and his own opinions, is his highest joy....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 18:1 This is a difficult verse, and has obtained various interpretations. The Authorized Version gives, THROUGH DESIRE A MAN, HAVING SEPARATED HIMSELF, SEEKETH AND INTERMEDDLETH WITH ALL WISDOM; _i.e. _a man who has an earnest desire for self-improvement will hold himself aloof from worldly entanglements, and, occupying himself wholly in this pursuit, will become conversant with all wisdom. This gives good sense, and offers a contrast to the fool in Proverbs 18:2, who "hath no delight in understanding." But the Hebrew does not rightly bear this interpretation. Its conciseness occasions ambiguity. Literally, _For his desire a man who separates himself seeks_;_ in _(or _against_) all wisdom he mingles

A FOOL HATH NO DELIGHT IN UNDERSTANDING,.... In natural understanding, and in the improvement of his mind in it; he delights not in books, nor in the conversation of men of learning and sense: or in spiritual understanding, in the understanding of spiritual things; these are foolishness to a natural man; nor does he delight in reading the Scriptures, nor in hearing the word, and attendance on it in the house of God, but is weary of such exercises; BUT THAT HIS HEART MAY DISCOVER ITSELF; and the folly that is in it: such men only desire to have some knowledge and understanding, to make a show of it, that they may be thought to be wise, and to be capable of talking of things as if they understood them, when it is only to the exposing of themselves and their ignorance; some persons attain to no more learning and knowledge than just to be capable to show that they are fools. Or, "but in the...

CHAPTER 18 PROVERBS OF PERSONAL INSTRUCTION There is first a warning against separation produced by desire, that is for gratification and pleasure, and not for a righteous purpose. Such a one becomes an enemy of true wisdom and one who intermeddleth with all wisdom. This proverb finds a New Testament illustration in Alexander the coppersmith, as well as Hymenaeus and Philetus, and Diotrephes of whom John writes in his epistle. A fool foams out his own folly. This proverb in Proverbs 18:2 is illustrated by many of the critics of the Bible. They have no delight in true understanding but their own hearts are laid bare by their mad oppositions to God's Holy Word. The fool's mouth, his lips, the talebearer (whisperer), and the slothful are the themes of the proverbs in Proverbs 18:6. Then we read

PROVERBS 18:1. MT yields no satisfactory sense. The LXX reads The man who wishes to separate from his friends seeks pretexts, but is always liable to reproach. Frankenberg renders the alienated friend seeks an occasion (emending the word for - desire-'), seeks by all means to stir up strife. Proverbs 18:4. RV translates correctly, but the sense is strange. Read, perhaps, The words of the wise are deep waters, a flowing brook, a fountain of life, but this is conjecture rather than emendation. Proverbs 18:5. _cf._ Proverbs 17:26, which may have originally followed this verse....

FOOL. Hebrew. _keslt._ See note on Proverbs 1:7. Same word as in verses: Proverbs 18:6; Proverbs 18:7. not the same as in Proverbs 18:13. DISCOVER. vent....

_but that_ The added word in R.V., BUT ONLY THAT, brings out the force of the Heb.; q.d. so far from having any delight in understanding, his only delight is in blurting out his own ideas and opinions. There is perhaps, as _Speaker's Comm_. suggests, an implied contrast with the "other form of egotism," condemned in the preceding verse....

THROUGH DESIRE, &C.— The opinions of commentators on these two verses are much divided. Houbigant renders them as follows: _He who prepares dissention seizes all occasions: he leaves nothing untried:_ Proverbs 18:2. _A fool loveth not to be ruled by counsel, but to be carried on rashly and turbulently._ Another reads, _A hair-brained man followeth fancy, and intermeddleth in every thing:_ Proverbs 18:2. _A fool hath no delight in understanding, but in rovings,_ or _ramblings of his heart._ If we understand the text in a bad sense, it may be paraphrased thus: "An inconstant man desires many things, and seeks satisfaction; but whatsoever he seeks he never meets with; but is defeated and disappointed in all his designs:...