'Folly' in the Bible

then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

Then the man, the owner of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my fellows, please do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not commit this act of folly.

Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Please let me bring them out that you may ravish them and do to them whatever you wish. But do not commit such an act of folly against this man.”

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.

“From the city men groan,And the souls of the wounded cry out;Yet God does not pay attention to folly.

Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”

My wounds grow foul and festerBecause of my folly.

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

I will hear what God the Lord will say;For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones;But let them not turn back to folly.

He will die for lack of instruction,And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.

“Forsake your folly and live,And proceed in the way of understanding.”

The woman of folly is boisterous,She is naive and knows nothing.

A prudent man conceals knowledge,But the heart of fools proclaims folly.

Every prudent man acts with knowledge,But a fool displays folly.

The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way,But the foolishness of fools is deceit.

The naive inherit foolishness,But the sensible are crowned with knowledge.

The crown of the wise is their riches,But the folly of fools is foolishness.

He who is slow to anger has great understanding,But he who is quick-tempered exalts folly.

The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable,But the mouth of fools spouts folly.

The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge,But the mouth of fools feeds on folly.

Folly is joy to him who lacks sense,But a man of understanding walks straight.

Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it,But the discipline of fools is folly.

Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs,Rather than a fool in his folly.

He who gives an answer before he hears,It is folly and shame to him.

The devising of folly is sin,And the scoffer is an abomination to men.

Do not answer a fool according to his folly,Or you will also be like him.

Answer a fool as his folly deserves,That he not be wise in his own eyes.

Like a dog that returns to its vomitIs a fool who repeats his folly.

Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain,Yet his foolishness will not depart from him.

And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind.

I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.

So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly; for what will the man do who will come after the king except what has already been done?

And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

I directed my mind to know, to investigate and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness.

folly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places.

the beginning of his talking is folly and the end of it is wicked madness.

But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.