Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction,.... Of parents, masters, and ministers of the word; the instruction of wisdom, the instruction of the Gospel, in things relating to their present spiritual peace, and to their eternal welfare: such generally come to poverty and disgrace in this life, and to everlasting shame and contempt in another; see Proverbs 5:11;
but he that regardeth reproof; the reproof of the word, and of the ministers of it, and of all good men, and takes it kindly, and acts according to it,
shall be honoured; with riches and reputation; if not with the riches of this world, yet with the riches of grace and glory; and shall have honour among the saints, and from the Lord himself; who will honour those that honour him, as they do who regard the reproof and instruction of his word, 1-Samuel 2:30.

He that scorns to be taught, will certainly be brought down.

(Compare Proverbs 10:17; Proverbs 12:1).

18 Poverty and shame (to him) who rejecteth correction;
But he who regardeth reproof is honoured.
We are neither to supply אישׁ before רישׁ קלונו (or more correctly, abstr. pro concr., as רמיּה, Proverbs 1:27), nor ל before פורע, as Gesenius (Lehrgeb. 227a) does; nor has the part. פּורע the value of a hypothetical clause like Proverbs 18:13, Job 41:18, although it may certainly be changed into such without destroying the meaning (Ewald, Hitzig); but "poverty and shame is he who is without correction," is equivalent to, poverty and shame is the conclusion or lot of him who is without correction; it is left to the hearer to find out the reference of the predicate to the subject in the sense of the quality, the consequence, or the lot (cf. e.g., Proverbs 10:17; Proverbs 13:1; Proverbs 14:35).
(Note: Vid., regarding the strong demand which the Hebr. style makes on hearer and reader, my Gesch. der jdischen Poesie (1863), p. 189.)
Regarding פרע, vid., p. 73. The Latin expression corresponding is: qui detrectat disciplinam. He who rejects the admonition and correction of his parents, his pastor, or his friend, and refuses every counsel to duty as a burdensome moralizing, such an one must at last gather wisdom by means of injury if he is at all wise: he grows poorer in consequence of missing the right rule of life, and has in addition thereto to be subject to disgrace through his own fault. On the contrary, to him who has the disgrace to deserve reproof, but who willingly receives it, and gives it effect, the disgrace becomes an honour, for not to reject reproof shows self-knowledge, humility, and good-will; and these properties in the judgment of others bring men to honour, and have the effect of raising them in their position in life and in their calling.