Proverbs 15:5–7

Proverbs 15:5 — "A fool despises his father's correction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent."

The verse opens with a sharp antithesis that is characteristic of wisdom literature's two-way structure: the fool versus the prudent person. The Hebrew word for "fool" here (ʾewîl) denotes not simply the ignorant but the morally obstinate — one who has the capacity for wisdom but willfully rejects it. "Despises" (nāʾaṣ) carries connotations of contemptuous dismissal, even scorn. This is not mere inattentiveness but an active rejection of the formative voice of a father.

"His father's correction" (mûsar ʾābîw) is a key phrase in Proverbs. The word mûsar encompasses both discipline and instruction — it is formative correction, the kind that shapes character over time. In the wider book of Proverbs, the father's voice is the primary channel through which wisdom is transmitted (cf. Prov 1:8; 4:1). The fool's contempt, then, is not merely a social failing but a rupture in the ordered transmission of wisdom across generations.

The contrast is "whoever heeds reproof is prudent" (maskîl) — one who is skilled, discerning, who has the capacity to read reality correctly. To accept correction is therefore not a passive act of submission but an exercise of intelligence: recognizing that one's own perception is limited and that wisdom comes through relationship and accountability.

Proverbs 15:6 — "In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but the income of the wicked brings trouble."

On the surface this verse speaks of material prosperity, but the broader context of Proverbs consistently redefines "treasure" (ḥôsen) in moral and spiritual terms (cf. Prov 8:18–21; 10:2). The "house" (bêt) of the righteous is more than a physical dwelling — in the ancient Near Eastern world, it represents lineage, legacy, and the transmission of goods (material and immaterial) across generations. The righteous household accumulates because it is ordered: correction is received, relationships are honoring, speech is truthful.

The second half — "but the income of the wicked brings trouble" — introduces the motif of perversion. The wicked acquire but their acquisition disturbs rather than sustains. The Hebrew word neʿākeret (trouble, disturbance, ruin) suggests a household that, though seemingly prosperous, is internally disordered. This is the irony of wickedness in Proverbs: it promises enrichment but delivers only turbulence.

Proverbs 15:7 — "The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of fools."

The triad closes with a movement outward: from receptivity (v. 5), to interior accumulation (v. 6), to diffusion (v. 7). The "lips of the wise" (śiptê ḥakāmîm) are instruments of transmission — wisdom is not hoarded but scattered (yezārû, "spread" or "scatter," as one scatters seed). This agricultural metaphor implies generativity: wise speech is fruitful, it falls into the community and takes root.

The contrast is stark: "not so the hearts of fools." Here the text shifts from lips to hearts — the fool's very interior (lēb) is disordered. This is a deeper diagnosis than mere silence; the fool does not simply fail to communicate wisdom, he lacks the interior resources from which wise speech would flow. In the typological sense, these three verses trace an arc from formation (correction received) to interiority (righteous treasure) to mission (knowledge spread) — a pattern that mirrors the catechetical and apostolic life of the Church itself.

Catholic tradition reads these verses through several converging lenses.

The Fourth Commandment and the pedagogy of the Father. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (§2214–2216) teaches that the child's duty to honor parents is rooted not merely in social convention but in the very structure of divine filiation: God himself is Father, and earthly fathers participate in his paternal authority. To despise a father's correction (v. 5) is therefore, in the deepest sense, to close oneself to the formative will of God. St. John Chrysostom, commenting on similar texts, writes that the father's reproof is "medicine for the soul — bitter in the moment, healing in its effect" (Homilies on Ephesians, 21).

The domestic church and the treasury of virtue. The Second Vatican Council's Lumen Gentium (§11) and the post-synodal exhortation Familiaris Consortio (§49) describe the Christian family as the ecclesia domestica — the domestic church. Verse 6's "house of the righteous" anticipates this vision: the household is not merely a private space but a theological reality, a place where grace accumulates and is transmitted. St. Thomas Aquinas, drawing on Aristotle, holds that prudentia (prudence) is the virtue that governs the household (oeconomia), ordering all other goods toward their true end (Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 50).

The apostolic dimension of wise speech. Verse 7 finds its theological apex in the Church's teaching on the sensus fidei and the lay apostolate. Lumen Gentium (§35) calls the faithful to spread the faith through the "witness of a virtuous life" and through speech. The wise lips that scatter knowledge are a figure of every baptized Catholic's prophetic office. Pope Francis, in Evangelii Gaudium (§120), echoes this when he insists that authentic proclamation flows from an interior life that has truly received the Word — just as verse 7's wise lips flow from the interior treasury of verse 6.

For a contemporary Catholic, these three verses diagnose a specific and common spiritual failure: the refusal of correction. In an age of curated self-presentation and algorithmic echo chambers, the fool of verse 5 is uncomfortably familiar — not someone ignorant of wisdom, but someone who has access to it and actively filters it out. The practical application begins with a concrete question: Who in my life has the authority and the love to correct me, and am I actually hearing them? This means taking seriously the voice of a confessor, a spiritual director, a faithful spouse, or a parent — not as threats to autonomy but as channels of formation.

Verse 6 calls Catholic families to examine what kind of treasure they are truly building. The question is not whether the household is financially stable, but whether it is morally and spiritually generative — whether children are inheriting faith, virtue, and a capacity for wisdom, or merely assets and anxieties.

Verse 7 issues a challenge to every Catholic in professional, familial, and public life: does your speech scatter knowledge, or does it scatter noise? The examined life, rooted in Scripture and sacrament, should produce speech that genuinely illuminates others — at the dinner table, in the workplace, in the public square.