NOTES for Pro 21:10-13

These are harsh words, and they may seem frightening to us: “When a scoffer is punished, the simple become wise.” It sounds as though this were a public execution: let us take a bad person and punish him as a lesson to everyone else... Is this what the Wise One is saying? In any case, there is no sadism in his words. But it is important for us to understand and clearly recognize the consequences of sin, the consequences of rejecting God. The realization that our actions entail definite consequences, that we are responsible for everything we do, is very important. And if a simple person, that is, someone uneducated and unwise, manages to understand this without having to learn from his own mistakes, that truly is the beginning of wisdom.