This verse carries on and puts the climax to the lesson of the preceding. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul; "hateth himself," Septuagint; commits moral suicide, because he does not follow the path of life.
He is like a sick man who thrusts away the wholesome medicine which is his only hope of cure. He that heareth (listeneth to) reproof getteth understanding; literally, possesseth a heart, and therefore does not despise his soul, but "loves it" (Proverbs 19:8), as the LXX.
renders.