Wisdom is too high for a fool; he does not open his mouth in the meeting place.
Parallel translations
- WEB Wisdom is too high for a fool: he doesn’t open his mouth in the gate.
- KJV Wisdom is too high for a fool: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.
- NKJV Wisdom is too lofty for a fool; He does not open his mouth in the gate.
- NASB ¶Wisdom is too exalted for a fool, He does not open his mouth at the gate.
- NLT Wisdom is too lofty for fools. Among leaders at the city gate, they have nothing to say.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wisdom is beyond a fool's reach, so he stays silent where decisions are made.
Overview
A fool cannot attain true wisdom, so he has nothing to contribute "in the gate," the place of counsel and judgment. His silence there exposes his lack of insight. The verse shows that folly disqualifies a person from the weighty matters wisdom handles, underscoring wisdom's surpassing value.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Prov 14:6A mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.
- 1 Cor 2:14The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- Ps 10:5He is secure in his ways at all times; Your lofty judgments are far from him; he sneers at all his foes.
- Ps 92:5–6How great are Your works, O LORD, how deep are Your thoughts!
- Prov 31:8–9Open your mouth for those with no voice, for the cause of all the dispossessed.
- Isa 29:21those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.
- Job 5:4His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
- Prov 15:24The path of life leads upward for the wise, that he may avoid going down to Sheol.
- Amos 5:10There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.
- Prov 22:22Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate,
- Prov 17:24Wisdom is the focus of the discerning, but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.
- Amos 5:12For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.
- Amos 5:15Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
- Job 31:21if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,
- Job 29:7–25When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 24:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.