Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
Parallel translations
- WEB Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?
- BSB Take notice, O senseless among the people! O fools, when will you be wise?
- NKJV Understand, you senseless among the people; And you fools, when will you be wise?
- NASB ¶Pay attention, you stupid ones among the people; And when will you understand, foolish ones?
- NLT Think again, you fools! When will you finally catch on?
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
The psalmist calls the senseless and foolish to finally become wise. He summons the spiritually dull to reckon with the God who sees.
Overview
Turning to address the foolish, the psalmist urges them to abandon their absurd assumption that God is unaware. To deny God's knowledge is the height of folly, contradicting His very nature as Creator. True wisdom begins with the fear of the LORD, who knows all things (Proverbs 1:7; Psalm 14:1).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 92:6A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
- Titus 3:3For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- Ps 49:10For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
- Deut 32:29O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
- Isa 27:11When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
- Rom 3:11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
- Prov 12:1Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.
- Jer 8:6–8I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
- Prov 8:5O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
- Ps 73:22So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
- Prov 1:22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 94:8 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.