זוהר בראשית — דף קעט ע”ב

The verse “who no longer knows how to be warned” refers to the fool, who walks in darkness. Rabbi Shimon explains that the “poor child” is the good inclination, a youth who has nothing of his own, who has the renewal of the moon and in whom wisdom dwells, while the “old king” is the evil inclination, which has never emerged from its impurity. It gets ahead of the good inclination with a person from the day of birth, like the “shrewd wicked man” who pleads his case before his opponent arrives, as the serpent did; when the good inclination comes afterward, the person does not trust it. The righteous, however, is rescued from everything: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” Jacob suffered from Laban, Esau, Dinah and Shechem, and then from the turmoil over Joseph, as in the verse “I had no ease, nor quiet, nor rest.” At the end, Rabbi Yose begins to explain “The righteous man has perished.”