A stone is heavy and the sand weighty,
But a fool’s vexation is heavier than both (Pr. 273).
Wherefore the Wise dealt them some shrewd blows, being well aware that the skin of the dullard and the scornful was tough:
A whip for a horse, a bridle for an ass,
And a rod for the back of fools (Pr. 263).
As a dog returneth to his vomit,
So a fool repeateth his folly (Pr. 2611).
A rebuke entereth deeper into a sensible man
Than a hundred stripes into a fool (Pr. 1710).
Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar,
Yet will his folly not depart from him (Pr. 2722).
It may be thought that some of these words are over-bitter and even savage. If so, the plea can be advanced that there was probably much provocation. The Scorner seems to have been a familiar figure, and he was doubtless clever enough to upset with his mockery many an audience to which the Wise-man was holding forth. He that correcteth a scorner getteth to himself insult, and he that reproveth a wicked man getteth himself reviling (Pr. 97)—that sounds like the fruit of experience, and there is much that is suggestive in this saying also—The proud and haughty man, scorner is his name, he worketh in the arrogance of pride (Pr. 2124). But if the Wise suffered at times, one gathers that they found no small consolation for their hurt dignity in such reflections as these:
Answer not a fool according to his folly
Lest thou be like unto him (Pr. 264).
Judgements are prepared for scorners,
And stripes for the back of fools (Pr. 1929).