Provérbios 1:30 Midrash: Midrash Mishlei, Midrash Tanchuma Buber & Bamidbar Rabbah

[13] (Proverbs 1:22): "'How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?' - These are the generation of the wilderness; 'and scoffers delight in their scoffing' - These are the congregation of Korah; 'and fools hate knowledge' - This refers to the wicked kingdom that did not accept the yoke of Heaven and the yoke of Torah. (Proverbs 1:23): 'Turn to my reproof' - These are Israel, whom Moses rebuked for the Golden Calf incident. 'Behold, I will pour out my spirit to you' - When he explained to them the Mishnah Torah. 'I will make my words known to you' - This teaches that he made known to them the particulars and explanations of the Torah, purity and impurity, prohibition and permission. (Proverbs 1:24): 'Because I have called and you refused' - This is the Holy One, Blessed be He, who sounded His voice to Israel, and they sinned against Him again, as it is said (Exodus 16:28): 'How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?' Another interpretation: 'Because I have called' - This is Moses, who was calling them words of Torah, and they were not believing, as it is said 'How long do you refuse?' Another interpretation: 'Because I have called' - This is Jeremiah, who was calling to Israel in Jerusalem to repent, and they did not believe him, as it is said (Zechariah 7:11): 'But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, etc.' 'I have stretched out my hand, and no one regards' - This is Gabriel, whose hand was stretched out over Jerusalem for six and a half years, with coals in his hand, and he wished to throw them in anger, but he waited for them to repent, and they did not heed. Another interpretation: 'I have stretched out my hand, and no one regards' - This is the Holy One, Blessed be He, whose hand was stretched out for six and a half years that they might return in repentance, but they did not return. Until when? Rabbi Jeremiah said: Until His anger returned, as it is said (Hosea 14:5): 'I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for My anger is turned away from him.' (Proverbs 1:25): 'But you have ignored all my counsel' - This is Moses, who was advising Israel, and they would turn away from him and cancel his counsel. 'And would have none of my reproof' - This is Jeremiah, that every reproof and reproof that he was reproving Israel, they were scorning him and ridiculing him. Jeremiah said to them: By your lives, a day is coming, just as you were ridiculing me and playing with me, to mock and ridicule you, from where? From what is written after it: (Proverbs 1:26): 'I also will laugh at your calamity,' and it says: (Proverbs 1:27): 'When your fear comes as destruction, etc.' (Proverbs 1:28): 'Then they will call me, but I will not answer' - And why all this? Rabbi Ishmael said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to them through my prophets (Isaiah 55:6): 'Seek the Lord while He may be found,' by your lives, a day will come when you will call Me, and I will not answer you, the proof is 'Then they will call me, but I will not answer,' and why all this - (Proverbs 1:29): 'Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.' (Proverbs 1:30): 'They would none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof' - said the Holy One, Blessed be He: I said to you through my prophets (Ezekiel 33:11): 'Turn back, turn back from your evil ways,' by your lives, a day will come when I will punish you according to your ways, as it is said: (Proverbs 1:31): 'Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, etc.' And why all this: (Proverbs 1:32): 'For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, etc.' But whoever listens to my words of Torah, I will seat him in tranquility and security, as it is said: (Proverbs 1:33): 'But whoever listens to me will dwell securely.'"

[Another interpretation (of Numb. 14:11): HOW LONG WILL THIS PEOPLE SCORN ME?: The Holy One said to them: I had said that you would not sin. Instead you would live and endure like me, just as I live and endure forever and forevermore. (According to Ps. 82:6:) I SAID: YOU ARE GODS; EVEN ALL OF YOU ARE CHILDREN OF THE MOST HIGH. <You are> like the ministering angels who never taste death. Yet after this greatness you wanted to die (according to vs. 7): INDEED YOU SHALL DIE LIKE A HUMAN (Adam), <i.e.,> like the first Adam, to whom I decreed one commandment which he was to do, that he might live and endure forever, as stated (in Gen. 3:22): BEHOLD, THE HUMAN (adam) HAS BECOME LIKE ONE OF US. Similarly also (in Gen. 1:27): AND GOD CREATED THE HUMAN (adam) IN HIS OWN IMAGE, so that he would live and endure like himself. Yet he corrupted his works and nullified his decree, for he ate of the tree. Then I said to him (in Gen. 3:19): FOR DUST YOU ARE AND UNTO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN. So also in your case (in Ps. 82:6), I SAID: YOU ARE GODS, but you corrupted your works as <did> Adam. Surely you shall die like Adam! And who made this happen to them? <You, for> (according to Prov. 1:25) BUT YOU HAVE SPURNED ALL MY PLAN. (According to vs. 30:) THEY HAVE DESPISED ALL MY REBUKE. It is therefore stated (in Numb. 14:11): HOW LONG WILL THIS PEOPLE SCORN ME …?

“Until when will this people provoke Me” – this is what is written: “You nullified [vatifre’u] all my counsel and are unwilling to receive my rebuke” (Proverbs 1:25). “They disdained all my rebuke” (Proverbs 1:30). What is vatifre’u? It is, rather, all the good that I counseled in your regard, you corrupted it and nullified [ufratem] it, as it is stated: “Vatifre’u all my counsel.” “I descended to deliver you from the hand of Egypt” (Exodus 3:8), but you did not do so.²²This is a reference to God's call that they should abandon the idols of Egypt, and the refusal of the nation to do so in Egypt. See Ezekiel 20:5–8. You came to the sea and immediately ruined the plan, as it is stated: “They were defiant at the sea, at the Red Sea” (Psalms 106:7). With thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads of angels I descended for your benefit, and I would give each and every one of you two angels, one would gird him with his weapon and one would place a crown on his head. Rabbi Yehuda of Tzippori said: They tied weapons upon them. Rabbi Simai says: They dressed them in royal purple garments with the ineffable name engraved on it. All the days that it was in their possession, no evil matter would affect them, neither the angel of death, nor another matter. When they sinned, Moses said to them: “Now remove your ornament” (Exodus 33:5). At that moment, “the people heard this evil tiding” (Exodus 33:4). What is written: “The children of Israel were stripped of their ornament” (Exodus 33:6). What did the Holy One blessed be He do at the giving of the Torah? He brought the angel of death, He said to him: 'The entire world is in your domain, except for this nation that I chose for Me.' Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili said: The angel of death said before the Holy One blessed be He: 'Was I created in the world for nothing?’ The Holy One blessed be He said to him: 'I created you so you can bereave idol worshippers, but you have no license over this nation.'
See the counsel that the Holy One blessed be He counseled in their regard, that they will be alive and enduring: “But you, who cleave [to the Lord your God, all of you live today]” (Deuteronomy 4:4). Likewise it says: “The writing was the writing of God, engraved [ḥarut] on the tablets” (Exodus 32:16). What is ḥarut? Rabbi Yehuda says: Freedom [ḥerut] from the kingdoms. Rabbi Neḥemya says: From the angel of death. Rabbi [Yehuda Hanasi] says: From suffering.
See the counsel that the Holy One blessed be He counseled in their regard, and they immediately corrupted that counsel within forty days. That is why it is stated: “You nullified all my counsel” (Proverbs 1:25). The Holy One blessed be He said to them: ‘I said that you will not sin, and you will live and endure like Me, just as I live and endure for all eternity. “I had said: You are divine, like beings on High, all of you,” (Psalms 82:6), like the ministering angels that do not die. But after all that greatness, you sought to die; “yet as men [adam] you will die” (Psalms 82:7), like Adam the first man, whom I commanded one mitzva for him to perform it, and he would live and endure forever,’ as it is stated: “Behold, the man has become as one of us” (Genesis 3:22), and likewise: “God created man in his image” (Genesis 1:27) – that he would live and endure like Him. ‘But he corrupted his actions, nullified My decree, and ate from the tree. I said to him: “For you are dust [and will return to dust]” (Genesis 3:19). You, too, I said: “I had said: You are divine,” but you corrupted yourselves like Adam. “Yet, as Adam you will die.” Who caused this for them? “You nullified all My counsel.”’
The Holy One blessed be He said to them: ‘With the benefit that I brought upon you, with that, you infuriate. They came to the wilderness and I fed them manna for forty years, and not one of them needed to relieve himself for those forty years. Rather, they ate the manna and it became flesh for them,’ as it is stated: “Men ate the bread of the mighty [abirim]” (Psalms 78:25).²³This is expounded as though it said eivarim, meaning limbs. With it they infuriated Him. One says to the other: ‘Do you not know that we have not relieved ourselves for several days, and a person who does not relieve himself for four days or five days, he dies.’ “And our soul loathes the insubstantial [hakelokel] bread” (Numbers 21:5), as it was light in their intestines. The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘With what I benefitted them, they infuriated Me,’ as it is stated: “What more is there to do for my vineyard [that I did not do in it]?” (Isaiah 5:4).²⁴In this metaphor, the Holy One blessed be He is the owner of the vineyard and Israel is the vineyard.
The spies went and saw the land. You find that every place that Israel goes, it is recognized, as it is stated: “All who see them will recognize them” (Isaiah 61:9). The Holy One blessed be He said: If the Emorites see them, they will recognize that they are Israel and will kill them. Rather, what will I do? In each and every province that the spies would enter, the head of the province would be stricken, or its king would be stricken, so they would be occupied in taking their dead out and would not pay attention to the spies, so they would not kill them. But they infuriated with it; when they came to Moses, and to Israel, they said: ‘What is the land?’ Every place that they entered, they would see dead people, what benefit is there? “A land that consumes its inhabitants” (Numbers 13:32) – the Holy One blessed be He said: ‘I believed that you would become like the patriarchs, “Like grapes in the wilderness” (Hosea 9:10), but I did not believe that you would become like Sodom, as it is stated: “For their vine is of the vine of Sodom”’ (Deuteronomy 32:32). “Why did I hope to produce grapes and it produced inferior ones?” (Isaiah 5:4). That is why it is stated: “Until when will this people provoke Me?”