Proverbs 23:9

Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Speak not in the ears of a fool.—Do not waste thy time in explaining matters to him.

A fool.—A dull, stupid person. (Comp. Proverbs 1:22.)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 23:9. Speak not in the ears of a fool — Cast not away good counsels upon obstinate and incorrigible sinners: see Matthew 7:6. For he will despise the wisdom of thy words — He will scornfully reject thy wise and good admonitions.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:1-3 God's restraints of the appetite only say, Do thyself no harm. 4,5. Be not of those that will be rich. The things of this world are not happiness and a portion for a soul; those that hold them ever so fast, cannot hold them always, cannot hold them long. 6-8. Do not make thyself burdensome to any, especially those not sincere. When we are called by God to his feast, and to let our souls delight themselves, Isa 25:6; 55:2, we may safely partake of the Bread of life. 9. It is our duty to take all fit occasions to speak of Divine things; but if what a wise man says will not be heard, let him hold his peace. 10,11. The fatherless are taken under God's special protection. He is their Redeemer, who will take their part; and he is mighty, almighty.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The "fool" here is one willfully and persistently deaf to it, almost identical with the scorner.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. (Compare Pr 9:8). "Cast not your pearls before swine" (Mt 7:6).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Speak not in the ears of a fool; cast not away good counsels upon obstinate and incorrigible sinners. We have the same advice given Matthew 7:6.

He will despise the wisdom of thy words; he will scornfully reject thy wise and good admonitions.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Speak not in the ears of a fool,.... For it is only beating the air, and speaking to the wind; it is casting pearls before swine, and that which is holy to dogs. By the "fool" is meant a wicked man, one abandoned to sin, and hardened in it; that scoffs at all admonitions and reproofs, that derides the word, and the preachers of it, and makes a mock at all good men, and everything they say; and therefore what is serious and sacred should not be said to them, since it only becomes the object of their banter and ridicule;

for he will despise the wisdom of thy words; not only the words of doctrine, reproof, and correction, but the "wisdom" of them; or let them be ever so wisely spoken; for if the wisdom of God and his words, the truths of the Gospel, are foolishness with such, and despised by them, then much more the wisdom even of the best of men, and the wisest things they say; yea, when they deliver the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, the Gospel of Christ, which therefore should be spoken among them that are perfect, 1 Corinthians 1:24.

Geneva Study Bible

Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Here is another case in which "sweet words" are lost. Speak not in the ears of a fool. This does not mean, as it would in our English phrase - whisper not to a fool; but do not take the trouble to try to make him understand, impart nothing to him. The "fool" here (kesil) is the dull, stolid, stupid man. who cannot be moved from his own narrow groove (see on Proverbs 1:22). It is a mere casting of pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6) to speak to such a man of high aims, righteous motives, self-sacrifice (comp. Proverbs 9:8). He will despise the wisdom of thy words. He cannot enter into the meaning of words of wisdom; he has no appetite for them, he cannot assimilate them; and in his self-satisfied dulness he feels for them nothing but contempt (Ecclus. 22:7, etc., "Whoso teacheth a fool is as one that glueth a potsherd together, and as he that waketh one from a sound sleep. He that telleth a tale to a fool speaketh to one in a slumber: whey he hath told his tale, he will say, What is the matter?") Proverbs 23:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Another case in which good words are lost:

Speak not to the ears of a fool,

For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

To speak in the ears of any one, does not mean to whisper to him, to so to speak that it is distinctly perceived. כּסיל, as we have no often explained, is the intellectually heavy and dull, like pinguis and tardus; Arab. balyd, clumsy, intellectually immoveable (cf. bld, the place where one places himself firmly down, which one makes his point of gravity). The heart of such an one is covered over (Psalm 119:70), as with grease, against all impressions of better knowledge; he has for the knowledge which the words spoken design to impart to him, no susceptibility, no mind, but only contempt. The construction בּוּז ל has been frequently met with from Proverbs 6:30.