34 Bible Verses about Foolish People

“Lord my God, You have now made Your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership.

I am more stupid than any other man,
and I lack man’s ability to understand.

I was stupid and didn’t understand;
I was an unthinking animal toward You.

My wounds are foul and festering
because of my foolishness.

“Job speaks without knowledge;
his words are without insight.”

David’s conscience troubled him after he had taken a census of the troops. He said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I’ve done. Now, Lord, because I’ve been very foolish, please take away Your servant’s guilt.”

David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. Now, please take away Your servant’s guilt, for I’ve been very foolish.”

Saul responded, “I have sinned. Come back, my son David, I will never harm you again because today you considered my life precious. I have been a fool! I’ve committed a grave error.”

God, You know my foolishness,
and my guilty acts are not hidden from You.

“Don’t, my brother!” she cried. “Don’t humiliate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Don’t do this horrible thing!

Then someone reported to David: “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.”

“Lord,” David pleaded, “please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!”

I have become a fool; you forced it on me. I should have been endorsed by you, since I am not in any way inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.

No one should deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise.

I wish you would put up with a little foolishness from me. Yes, do put up with me.

I repeat: No one should consider me a fool. But if you do, at least accept me as a fool, so I too may boast a little.

What I say in this matter of boasting, I don’t speak as the Lord would, but foolishly.

My lord should pay no attention to this worthless man Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name is Nabal, and stupidity is all he knows. I, your servant, didn’t see my lord’s young men whom you sent.

The princes of Zoan are complete fools;
Pharaoh’s wisest advisers give stupid advice!
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the wise,
a student of eastern kings”?

The princes of Zoan have been fools;
the princes of Memphis are deceived.
Her tribal chieftains have led Egypt astray.

He who makes a fortune unjustly
is like a partridge that hatches eggs it didn’t lay.
In the middle of his days
his riches will abandon him,
so in the end he will be a fool.

I saw among the inexperienced,
I noticed among the youths,
a young man lacking sense.

Five of them were foolish and five were sensible.

When the foolish took their lamps, they didn’t take olive oil with them.

But the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’

Fools! Didn’t He who made the outside make the inside too?

Foolish one! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

I say this to our shame: We have been weak.

But in whatever anyone dares to boast—I am talking foolishly—I also dare:

For if I want to boast, I will not be a fool, because I will be telling the truth. But I will spare you, so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me,

Is this how you repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Isn’t He your Father and Creator?
Didn’t He make you and sustain you?

Fools suffered affliction
because of their rebellious ways and their sins.

They have provoked My jealousy
with their so-called gods;
they have enraged Me with their worthless idols.
So I will provoke their jealousy
with an inferior people;
I will enrage them with a foolish nation.

But I ask, “Did Israel not understand?” First, Moses said:

I will make you jealous
of those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation
that lacks understanding.