Verse 3. — The doctrine wherewith thou reprovest me I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding shall answer me. 2. Many hear admonitions in order to judge them, not to follow them. — As if he plainly said: I indeed hear thy words, but whether they be rightly spoken, I discern by the spirit of my understanding. For those who despise the words of the teacher take his doctrine not for help, but as an occasion of strife, so as rather to judge what they have heard than to follow it. These things, then, being premised as it were under a certain restraint, he now leaps forth into open reproach of the blessed man, when he subjoins: