Proverbs 19:29 (ESV) “Condemnation is ready for scoffers, and beating for the backs of fools.”

We do not often use the word “scoffer” in everyday conversation. According to an online dictionary, a scoffer is “someone who jeers or mocks or treats something with contempt or calls out in derision.” This word appears thirteen times in the Proverbs. Would you like to recognize a scoffer? It might also be wise to examine our own lives as this can creep in slowly and cause great damage.

The scoffer is injurious, hateful, hard-hearted, quarrelsome, abusive and destructive. The next time you are corrected or rebuked, be careful not to scoff. Rather, consider carefully what is being said. Scoffing is foolish. It may ridicule wisdom and a work of love from someone who may have more wisdom and life experience than you have. It is not the response of a wise person.

Proverbs 9:7 “Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

Proverbs 9:8 “Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.”

Proverbs 15:12 “A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.”

Proverbs 22:10 “Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease.”

Proverbs 29:8 “Scoffers set a city aflame, but the wise turn away wrath.”