A wise man will hear, and will increase learning. The change of construction in the original is reproduced in the Authorized Version, but has been rendered variously. Thus Umbreit and Elster, regarding the verb יִשְׁמַע (yishema) as conditional, translate, "if the wise man hear;" on the other hand, Delitzsch and Zockler take it as voluntative," let the wise man hear," ete.
The principle here enunciated is again stated in Proverbs 9:9, "Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser," and finds expression under the gospel economy in the words of our Lord, "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance".
Learning; Hebrew, לֶקַח (lekakh), in the sense of being transmitted or received (Gesenius, Delitzsch, Dunn). A man of understanding (LXX; ὁ νοήμων; Vulgate, intelligens) is a person of intelligence who lays himself open to be instructed.
Wise counsels; Hebrew, תַּחְבֻּלוֹת (takhebuloth). This word is derived from חֹבֶל (khevel), a ship rope, a denominative of חֹבֵל (khovel), and only occurs in the plural. It signifies those maxims of prudence by which a man may direct his course aright through life (cf.
regimen, Arabic). The imagery is taken from the management of a vessel, and is reproduced in the LXX. κυβέρνησις, and the Vulgate gubernatio. "Navigationi vitam comparat" (Mariana). The word is almost exclusively confined to the Proverbs, and occurs in Proverbs 11:14; Proverbs 12:5; Proverbs 20:18; and Proverbs 24:6, usually in a good sense, though it has the meaning of "stratagem" in Proverbs 12:5.
In the only other passage where it is found it is used of God's power in turning about the clouds; of. Job 37:12, "And it [i.e. the bright cloud] is turned round about by his counsels ( בְּתַחְבּוּל תָוּ, bethakhebulothau)."
It is the practical correlative of "learning," in the first part of the verse.