Proverbs 14:6 (BSB)

A mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.

From Proverbs 14. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 14:6

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 14:6: Note, 1. The reason why some people seek wisdom, and do not find it, is because they do not seek it from a right principle and in a right manner. They are scorners, and it is in scorn that they ask instruction, that they may ridicule what is told them and may cavil at it.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 14:6: A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not,.... So the scornful Greeks, that scoffed at the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel, sought natural wisdom, and thought they found it, and professed they had; but professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and with all their wisdom knew not God; and false teachers, that boasted of their evangelical wisdom, and of their great attainments...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 14:6: An humble, teachable spirit succeeds in seeking (Pro 8:9; Joh 7:17; Jam 1:5-6).
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 14:6: Pro 14:6 6 In vain the scorner seeketh wisdom; But to the man of understanding knowledge is easy. The general sentence is concrete, composed in the common historical form. Regarding ואין, necquidquam, vid., at Pro 13:4. The participle נקל is here neut. for נקלּה, something which makes itself easy or light.