'Foolish' in the Bible

Do not give to the foolish man a foolish answer, or you will be like him.

Give a foolish man a foolish answer, or he will seem wise to himself.

He who sends news by the hand of a foolish man is cutting off his feet and drinking in damage.

The legs of one who has no power of walking are hanging loose; so is a wise saying in the mouth of the foolish.

Giving honour to a foolish man is like attempting to keep a stone fixed in a cord.

Like a thorn which goes up into the hand of a man overcome by drink, so is a wise saying in the mouth of a foolish man.

Like an archer wounding all who go by, is a foolish man overcome by drink.

Like a dog going back to the food which he has not been able to keep down, is the foolish man doing his foolish acts over again.

Have you seen a man who seems to himself to be wise? There is more hope for the foolish than for him.

A stone has great weight, and sand is crushing; but the wrath of the foolish is of greater weight than these.

Even if a foolish man is crushed with a hammer in a vessel among crushed grain, still his foolish ways will not go from him.

He whose faith is in himself is foolish; but everyone walking wisely will be kept safe.

If a wise man goes to law with a foolish man, he may be angry or laughing, but there will be no rest.

A foolish man lets out all his wrath, but a wise man keeps it back quietly.

Have you seen a man who is quick with his tongue? There is more hope for a foolish man than for him.

Put far from me all false and foolish things: do not give me great wealth or let me be in need, but give me only enough food:

And I gave my heart to getting knowledge of wisdom, and of the ways of the foolish. And I saw that this again was desire for wind.

Of laughing I said, It is foolish; and of joy--What use is it?

I made a search with my heart to give pleasure to my flesh with wine, still guiding my heart with wisdom, and to go after foolish things, so that I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under the heavens all the days of their life.

And I went again in search of wisdom and of foolish ways. What may the man do who comes after the king? The thing which he has done before.

Then I saw that wisdom is better than foolish ways--as the light is better than the dark.

The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the foolish man goes walking in the dark; but still I saw that the same event comes to them all.

Then said I in my heart: As it comes to the foolish man, so will it come to me; so why have I been wise overmuch? Then I said in my heart: This again is to no purpose.

Of the wise man, as of the foolish man, there is no memory for ever, seeing that those who now are will have gone from memory in the days to come. See how death comes to the wise as to the foolish!

And who is to say if that man will be wise or foolish? But he will have power over all my work which I have done and in which I have been wise under the sun. This again is to no purpose.

The foolish man, folding his hands, takes the flesh of his body for food.

A young man who is poor and wise is better than a king who is old and foolish and will not be guided by the wisdom of others.

Put your feet down with care when you go to the house of God, for it is better to give ear than to make the burned offerings of the foolish, whose knowledge is only of doing evil.

As a dream comes from much business, so the voice of a foolish man comes with words in great number.

When you take an oath before God, put it quickly into effect, because he has no pleasure in the foolish; keep the oath you have taken.

What have the wise more than the foolish? and what has the poor man by walking wisely before the living?

Who is able to say what is good for man in life all the days of his foolish life which he goes through like a shade? who will say what is to be after him under the sun?

The hearts of the wise are in the house of weeping; but the hearts of the foolish are in the house of joy.

It is better to take note of the protest of the wise, than for a man to give ear to the song of the foolish.

Like the cracking of thorns under a pot, so is the laugh of a foolish man; and this again is to no purpose.

Be not quick to let your spirit be angry; because wrath is in the heart of the foolish.

Be not evil overmuch, and be not foolish. Why come to your end before your time?

I gave my mind to knowledge and to searching for wisdom and the reason of things, and to the discovery that sin is foolish, and that to be foolish is to be without one's senses.

This is evil in all things which are done under the sun: that there is one fate for all, and the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; while they have life their hearts are foolish, and after that--to the dead.

Have joy with the woman of your love all the days of your foolish life which he gives you under the sun. Because that is your part in life and in your work which you do under the sun.

The words of the wise which come quietly to the ear are noted more than the cry of a ruler among the foolish.

Dead flies make the oil of the perfumer give out an evil smell; more valued is a little wisdom than the great glory of the foolish.

The heart of the wise man goes in the right direction; but the heart of a foolish man in the wrong.

And when the foolish man is walking in the way, he has no sense and lets everyone see that he is foolish.

The foolish are placed in high positions, but men of wealth are kept low.

The words of a wise man's mouth are sweet to all, but the lips of a foolish man are his destruction.

The first words of his mouth are foolish, and the end of his talk is evil crime.

The foolish are full of words; man has no knowledge of what will be; and who is able to say what will be after him?

The work of the foolish will be a weariness to him, because he has no knowledge of the way to the town.

And I will make children their chiefs, and foolish ones will have rule over them.

For this cause the Lord will have no pleasure in their young men, and no pity on their widows and the children without fathers: for they are all haters of God and evil-doers, and foolish words come from every mouth. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

The chiefs of Zoan are completely foolish; the wisest guides of Pharaoh have become like beasts: how do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the offspring of early kings?

The chiefs of Zoan have become foolish, the chiefs of Noph are tricked, the heads of her tribes are the cause of Egypt's wandering out of the way.

When its branches are dry they will be broken off; the women will come and put fire to them: for it is a foolish people; for this cause he who made them will have no mercy on them, and he whose work they are will not have pity on them.

The foolish man will no longer be named noble, and they will not say of the false man that he is a man of honour.

For the foolish man will say foolish things, having evil thoughts in his heart, working what is unclean, and talking falsely about the Lord, to keep food from him who is in need of it, and water from him whose soul is desiring it.

And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy Way; the unclean and the sinner may not go over it, and those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the foolish.

But you are nothing, and your work is of no value: foolish is he who takes you for his gods.

Who makes the signs of those who give word of the future come to nothing, so that those who have knowledge of secret arts go off their heads; turning the wise men back, and making their knowledge foolish:

For my people are foolish, they have no knowledge of me; they are evil-minded children, without sense, all of them: they are wise in evil-doing, but have no knowledge of doing good.

Then I said, But these are the poor: they are foolish, for they have no knowledge of the way of the Lord or of the behaviour desired by their God.

Give ear now to this, O foolish people without sense; who have eyes but see nothing, and ears without the power of hearing:

For that which is feared by the people is foolish: it is the work of the hands of the workman; for a tree is cut down by him out of the woods with his axe.

But they are together like beasts and foolish: the teaching of false gods is wood.

Like the partridge, getting eggs together but not producing young, is a man who gets wealth but not by right; before half his days are ended, it will go from him, and at his end he will be foolish.

A sword is on the men of pride, and they will become foolish: a sword is on her men of war, and they will be broken.

The visions which your prophets have seen for you are false and foolish; they have not made clear to you your sin so that your fate might be changed: but they have seen for you false words, driving you away.

This is what the Lord has said: A curse on the foolish prophets who go after the spirit which is in them and have seen nothing!

For this cause you will see no more foolish visions or make false use of secret arts: and I will make my people free from your power; and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

Now when she saw that her hope was made foolish and gone, she took another of her little ones and made him into a young lion.

And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing.

And Ephraim is like a foolish dove, without wisdom; they send out their cry to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

The days of punishment, the days of reward are come; Israel will be put to shame; the prophet is foolish, the man who has the spirit is off his head, because of your great sin.

Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a ploughed field.

Making foolish songs to the sound of corded instruments, and designing for themselves instruments of music, like David;

And the Lord said to me, Take again the instruments of a foolish keeper of sheep.

A curse on the foolish keeper who goes away from the flock! the sword will be on his arm and on his right eye: his arm will become quite dry and his eye will be made completely dark.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be in danger of being judged; and he who says to his brother, Raca, will be in danger from the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, You foolish one, will be in danger of the hell of fire.

And everyone to whom my words come and who does them not, will be like a foolish man who made his house on sand;

And I say to you that in the day when they are judged, men will have to give an account of every foolish word they have said.

And Jesus, answering, said, O false and foolish generation, how long will I be with you? how long will I put up with you? let him come here to me.

You foolish ones and blind: which is greater, the gold, or the Temple which makes the gold holy?

And five of them were foolish, and five were wise.

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

And the foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lights are going out.

The taking of goods and of life, broken faith between husband and wife, the desire of wealth, wrongdoing, deceit, sins of the flesh, an evil eye, angry words, pride, foolish acts:

O you foolish ones! did not he who made the outside in the same way make the inside?

But God said to him, You foolish one, tonight I will take your soul from you, and who then will be the owner of all the things which you have got together?

And not long after, the younger son got together everything which was his and took a journey into a far-away country, and there all his money went in foolish living.

But these words seemed foolish to them, and they had no belief in them.

And he said, O foolish men! how slow you are to give belief to what the prophets have said.

Who has said, by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David your servant, Why are the nations so violently moved, and why are the thoughts of the people so foolish?

Good people, why are you doing these things? We are men with the same feelings as you, and we give you the good news so that you may be turned away from these foolish things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things in them:

And some of those who were supporters of the theories of the Epicureans and the Stoics, had a meeting with him. And some said, What is this talker of foolish words saying? And others, He seems to be a preacher of strange gods: because he was preaching of Jesus and his coming back from the dead.

Because, having the knowledge of God, they did not give glory to God as God, and did not give praise, but their minds were full of foolish things, and their hearts, being without sense, were made dark.

Seeming to be wise, they were in fact foolish,

A teacher of the foolish, having in the law the form of knowledge and of what is true;

But I say, Had Israel no knowledge? First Moses says, You will be moved to envy by that which is not a nation, and by a foolish people I will make you angry.

For the word of the cross seems foolish to those who are on the way to destruction; but to us who are on the way to salvation it is the power of God.

Where is the wise? where is he who has knowledge of the law? where is the man of this world who has a love of discussion? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?