He that separateth himself seeketh [his] pleasure, he is vehement against all sound wisdom.
The verse turns on a single question: is the man who withdraws from others a seeker of wisdom or a runaway from it? Commentators divide here, and the split goes back to the oldest translations. Each reading has something to teach.
The difficulty is not invented by modern readers. One writer surveys the older versions and finds them pulling in opposite directions:
The first verse seems difficult, and it has certainly been translated in different ways. The sense in the Authorised Version does not resemble the sense the revisers give, and it does not resemble the ancient versions either. The Septuagint and the Vulgate build the sentence the same way, but Leeser has another view.
Another writer gives his own rendering. It keeps the separation, but ties it to the man's own wants:
Perhaps this is, "A man having separated himself, seeks according to his desire, and vexes himself with every kind of wisdom."
Read as a warning — the sense the ESV carries — the withdrawal here has nothing holy about it. The man is not fleeing what is wrong; he is chasing what he likes:
The separation that opens this chapter is in no way from evil. It is separation from other people, to indulge his own desire and pleasure. Such selfishness enrages him against all wisdom.
That distinction matters, because Scripture does call people apart. One writer finds the true kind of it in Joseph:
It is not separation as an end in itself, nor even a self-righteous, fleshly separation (Isaiah 65:5; Jude 19; Proverbs 18:1). It was rather a matter of separating from his brothers who spoke evil of their father (Genesis 37:2). Joseph stood clearly on his father's side.
The man who lives for his own desire turns against wisdom itself. One writer points to men in the New Testament who did it:
The first warning here is against separation that comes from desire. The desire is for pleasure and self-gratification, not for a righteous purpose. Such a one becomes an enemy of true wisdom. The New Testament illustrates this proverb in Alexander the coppersmith, and in Hymenaeus and Philetus. Diotrephes, whom John writes about in his letter, is another.
One writer points to the next verse, about the fool who takes no delight in understanding:
The verse that follows confirms this. It calls such a man a fool, who takes no delight in understanding, but only in laying his own heart bare. How far he is from knowing himself! His heart is the chief seat of his folly.
A quiet temperament is not the sin. The sin begins when a preference for one's own company hardens into a rule of one's own:
Many people are quiet and reserved by nature, and this can sometimes have its advantages. But if it leads to isolationism, it is mere selfishness. He is seeking his own desire (v. 1), and becomes in practice a law to himself. Therefore he rages against all wise judgment. For he thinks he is right, and that all others are wrong. This danger is real even when only a few believers are left to share fellowship with.
Another writer catches the same drift early, with a picture from the fields:
To shun the company of Christians is an early symptom of spiritual disease. When sheep owners or their shepherds see one sheep standing alone, away from the rest, they at once conclude it is ill. When well, all keep together. Beware, then, of sulking alone. It is the stragglers who fall an easy prey to the crafty foe.
The Authorised Version turned the verse the other way: "Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeks and intermeddles with all wisdom." One writer sets that older wording beside the fool of the next verse, and finds the first of the two in the queen of Sheba:
The Spirit shows us two different sources here. The first was what rose in the heart of this "queen of Sheba." Her heart was right. She had a "desire" for wisdom. Through that desire she could leave her home and her kingdom, to seek wisdom at Solomon's distant feet.
- Desire. Everything in this verse starts with what a man wants; the withdrawal is only the shape his wanting takes.
- Direction. Desire that pulls away from others to please self is selfishness. Separation from evil is a different thing.
- Deafness. Self-pleasing desire ends in rage against wisdom. The isolated man cannot take correction: he has already decided everyone else is wrong.
- Detection. Drifting from the company of God's people is an early symptom, not a harmless preference. It is the stragglers who get picked off.
- Difference. Commentators differ on the verse's direction. Most read it as a warning against isolation. The older Authorised Version reading makes desire the thing that sends a seeker travelling, like the queen who left her kingdom for wisdom.
A fool hath no delight in understanding, but only that his heart may reveal itself.
One proverb sets two appetites side by side: understanding, which you must take in, and self-expression, which just spills out. Commentators read the verse as an X-ray of the heart — not a complaint about talkative people, but a picture of what a person enjoys.
The verse follows a portrait of a man who cuts himself off from others to chase what he wants. Read together, they describe one person, and his withdrawal is not the healthy kind.
The separation at the start of this chapter is not a turning away from evil at all. It is a turning away from other people, to indulge his own desire and pleasure. Such selfishness enrages him against all wisdom.
The older wording — that his heart may reveal itself — points at the real problem. The fool talks to put himself on display, and what comes out is what he never examined.
The verse that follows confirms this. Such a person is called a fool, with no delight in understanding, but only in letting his heart reveal itself. How far he is from knowing himself! His heart is the main seat of his folly.
So the mouth is only the outlet. The folly sits further back, in a heart that nothing outside itself has ever tested.
In this chapter, understanding means real care for other people. By that measure, the fool's talk fails a simple test: nobody is better off for having heard it.
This is true understanding, and a fool takes no delight in it (v. 2). Instead of caring for others, he delights in airing the empty thoughts of his own heart, which helps no one.
That is a test for our own talk too: is anyone helped by it?
To see what the fool lacks, look at someone who had it. One writer finds the contrast in the queen of Sheba.
What this approves is the faculty within — the sense or taste of the soul — and that is the important thing after all. "Because of desire, a man separates himself, and seeks and meddles with all wisdom"; while, on the other hand, "a fool takes no pleasure in understanding" (Prov. 18:1-2). Here the Spirit shows us two different sources, and the first of them rose in the heart of this queen of Sheba. Her heart was right. She had a desire towards wisdom, and through that desire she could leave her home and her kingdom to seek it at Solomon's feet, far away.
What separates the two is not intelligence but taste. A distant rumour of wisdom moves one heart; the other cannot be bothered with wisdom at all. Commentators differ over verse 1: Bellett reads the separation as a seeker leaving home to find wisdom, while Kelly and Grant read it as selfish isolation. Bellett quotes an older translation of that verse; the ESV reads, "Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire."
The verse is not aimed only at loud talk in everyday conversation. One writer applies it to people who attack the Bible. Their attacks do the very thing the proverb describes.
A fool foams out his own folly. Many of the critics of the Bible illustrate this proverb in verse 2. They have no delight in true understanding, but their mad opposition to God's Holy Word lays their own hearts bare.
If the fault is refusing to receive, the cure is receiving. That costs something: it means admitting that someone else knows more.
To pay attention to the words of the wise is itself a wise thing: to give your heart as well as your ear to those who know better than we do. How sad is the self-sufficiency that doubts it!
The same writer names the root of this refusal:
He is sure he needs no advice; he is right in his own eyes… The wise man distrusts himself and listens to counsel. He does not cheat God and his conscience by asking advice from the weak and easy-going; he asks it from the godly.
- Delight, not ability. The verse tests what you enjoy. The fool is not short of words; he takes no pleasure in understanding.
- Delight turned inward. He cuts himself off from others to please himself, and his selfishness turns him against all wisdom.
- Delight on display. He talks so that his heart may show itself — and it does, revealing a folly he has never noticed in himself.
- Delight that serves nobody. Real understanding cares about others. His self-expression helps nobody.
- Delight relearned. Wisdom begins where self-sufficiency ends. Give your heart as well as your ear to those who know better, and take counsel from the godly.