When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise; when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.
This we had before (Pro 19:25), and it shows that there are two ways by which the simple may be made wise: - 1. By the punishments that are inflicted on those that are incorrigibly wicked. Let the law be executed upon a scorner, and even he that is simple will be awakened and alarmed by it, and will discern, more than he did, the...
When the scorner is punished,.... Either by the immediate hand of God, or by the civil magistrate; he who scoffs at Deity, blasphemes the most High, mocks at all religion, despises dominion, and speaks evil of dignities: the simple is made wise; who is weak and foolish, easily persuaded and drawn into sin, yet not hardened in it, but open to reproof and conviction; he...
(Compare Pro 19:25). That which the simple learn by the terrors of punishment, the wise learn by teaching.