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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 12:15 - 12:15
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
15 The way of the fool is right in his own eyes,
But the wise listeneth to counsel.
Other proverbs, like Pro 16:2, say that generally the judgment of a man regarding his character does not go beyond a narrow subjectivity; but there are objective criteria according to which a man can prove whether the way in which he walks is right; but the fool knows not other standard than his own opinion, and however clearly and truly one may warn him that the way which he has chosen is the wrong way and leads to a false end, yet he obstinately persists;
(Note: Vid., kindred proverbs by Carl Schulze, Die bibl. Sprichwörter der deutschen Sprache (1860), p. 50, and M. C. Wahl's Das Sprichwort in der heb.-aram. Literatur, u.s.w. (1871), p. 31.)
while a wise man is not so wise in his own eyes (Pro 3:7) as not to be willing to listen to well-meant counsel, because, however careful he may be regarding his conduct, yet he does not regard his own judgment so unerring as not to be inclined ever anew to try it and let it stand the test. Ewald has falsely construed: yet whoever hears counsel is wise. In consequence of the contrast, אֱוִיל and חָכָם are the subject ideas, and with וְשֹׁמֵעַ לְעֵצָה is brought forward that which is in contrast to the self-complacency of the fool, the conduct of the wise man.