A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him,.... He that makes a jest of religion; scoffs at godliness and godly men; treats the Gospel and the ministers of it with contempt; makes a mock at good men, and all that is good; a pestilent fellow, as the Vulgate Latin version: such an one not only does not love, for more is intended than is expressed; but hates him that reproves him, and especially if publicly, Amos 5:10; he thinks ill of him; bears him a grudge, and abhors him; and speaks evil of him, and reproaches him; and does all he can to the injury of his person and name; hence the advice of the wise man, Proverbs 9:7. Some render it, he "loves not reproving himself", or "to reprove himself" (b); he does not care to look into his own heart and ways, or to call himself to an account for what he does; nor to check himself in the pursuit of sin, nor argue with and reprove himself for it;
neither will he go unto the wise; to the private houses of wise and good men; nor to the house of wisdom, or place of public instruction, where wise dispensers of the word give good advice and counsel; scorners do not choose to go to either, lest they should be reproved for their evil ways, and be advised leave them; neither of which is agreeable to them; see John 3:20.
(b) "corripere", Gejerus.

A scorner cannot bear to reflect seriously within his own heart.

(Compare Proverbs 9:8).
go unto the wise--to be instructed.

12 The scorner liketh not that one reprove him,
To wise men he will not go.
The inf. absol., abruptly denoting the action, may take the place of the object, as here (cf. Job 9:18; Isaiah 42:24), as well as of the subject (Proverbs 25:27, Job 6:25). Thus הוכיח is (Proverbs 9:7) construed with the dat. obj. Regarding the probable conclusion which presents itself from passages such as Proverbs 15:12 and Proverbs 13:20, as to the study of wisdom in Israel, vid., p. 39. Instead of אל, we read, Proverbs 13:20 (cf. Proverbs 22:24), את־; for לכת את־ means to have intercourse with one, to go a journey with one (Malachi 2:6, cf. Genesis 5:24, but not 2-Samuel 15:22, where we are to translate with Keil), according to which the lxx has here μετὰ δὲ σοφῶν οὐχ ὁμιλήσει. The mocker of religion and of virtue shuns the circle of the wise, for he loves not to have his treatment of that which is holy reproved, nor to be convicted of his sin against truth; he prefers the society where his frivolity finds approbation and a response.