(5.) Good is it to hear the rebuke of a wise one (גערת occurs in this book here only, but at Proverbs xiii. 1, 8, xvii. 10), above a man (i.e. any one) hearing a song of befooled ones (the hiphil form is here especially to be noticed, ‘many befooled ones sing;’ as Jeremy Taylor says, ‘We commonly enter singing into the snare.’ Ginsburg would amend this passage by relegating the איש to the first clause; but this is to miss the point, which is, that ‘it is better to listen to a wise rebuking, than for any one to hear the song of the befooled’).
6 For as the [¹]crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.
[¹] Hebrew sound.
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the cackling of the befooled——and besides, it is evanescent.
(6.) For as the voice of the thorns under the pot (there is both alliteration and equivoke here, the root סור having the meaning, ‘to turn aside,’ ‘be crooked,’ etc., and סר, ‘displeased,’ 1 Kings xx. 43, xxi. 4) so (the word ‘so’ is somewhat emphatic, as standing alone) a laugh of the befooled (generic), also this is vanity (i.e. an instance of evanescence).
7 ¶ Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.