34 Bible Verses about Foolish People

Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.

Surely I am more stupid than any man,
And I do not have the understanding of a man.

Then I was senseless and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.

My wounds grow foul and fester
Because of my folly.

‘Job speaks without knowledge,
And his words are without wisdom.

Now David’s heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”

Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will not harm you again because my life was precious in your sight this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have committed a serious error.”

O God, it is You who knows my folly,
And my wrongs are not hidden from You.

But she answered him, “No, my brother, do not violate me, for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do this disgraceful thing!

Now someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” And David said, “O Lord, I pray, make the counsel of Ahithophel foolishness.”

I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.

I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me.

Again I say, let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little.

What I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.

Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

The princes of Zoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become stupid.
How can you men say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?

The princes of Zoan have acted foolishly,
The princes of Memphis are deluded;
Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes
Have led Egypt astray.

“As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,
So is he who makes a fortune, but unjustly;
In the midst of his days it will forsake him,
And in the end he will be a fool.”

And I saw among the naive,
And discerned among the youths
A young man lacking sense,

Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.

For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,

The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also?

You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;

To my shame I must say that we have been weak by comparison.But in whatever respect anyone else is bold—I speak in foolishness—I am just as bold myself.

For if I do wish to boast I will not be foolish, for I will be speaking the truth; but I refrain from this, so that no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me.

“Do you thus repay the Lord,
O foolish and unwise people?
Is not He your Father who has bought you?
He has made you and established you.

Fools, because of their rebellious way,
And because of their iniquities, were afflicted.

‘They have made Me jealous with what is not God;
They have provoked Me to anger with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,

But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says,
“I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation,
By a nation without understanding will I anger you.”