Three-two-one

Some fools rush into folly; others meander | Andrée Seu

There are three kinds of fools by my reading of Proverbs. There is the fist-shaking fool who knows not at Whom he rants and raves: "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit" (Proverbs 1:11-12). Of his number are those who "cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble" (Proverbs 4:16).

The second is the fool whose turpitude does not even rise to the level of interesting sin, but he sinks in his torpor, slouches in his sloth, and wallows in his middling wantonness. He commits adultery, not so much out of highhanded rebellion as ennui: He falls in with "the forbidden woman . . . the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God" (Proverbs 2:16-17). Also in this pretty kettle of fish is he who "follows worthless pursuits" (Proverbs 12:11) and the slothful man who "will not roast his game" (Proverbs 12:27). (There is bleeding between the categories.)