Character -- Proverbs 9:12

If you are wise, you are wise for your own benefit;
if you mock, you alone will bear the consequences.
(Proverbs 9:12 CSB)

The trait I disliked about Derek Kidner's commentary on Proverbs when I first bought it, is the very trait I prize now, decades later: its brevity.

"Brevity" is the word I'd have used then. But I've come to see that it is not so much brevity as well-thought-out, masterfully-crafted conciseness. Kidner resembles Solomon himself, in that he is able to say a great deal in a few words.

As an example, consider his comments on the verse given above, particularly the bolded words:

This is perhaps the strongest expression of individualism in the Bible. Such statements (cf. Ezk. 18; Gal. 6:4, 5) are not meant to deny that people benefit or suffer from each other's characters (cf. 10:1), but to emphasize that the ultimate gainer or loser is the man himself. Your character is the one thing you cannot borrow, lend or escape, for it is you (Proverbs, TOTC, p. 83)