100 Bible Verses about Fool

Proverbs 18:2 ESV / 1,292 helpful votes

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

Proverbs 29:11 ESV / 658 helpful votes

A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

Proverbs 1:7 ESV / 651 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 18:6 ESV / 563 helpful votes

A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.

Proverbs 29:9 ESV / 542 helpful votes

If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.

Matthew 5:22 ESV / 465 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Proverbs 28:26 ESV / 420 helpful votes

Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

Proverbs 26:19 ESV / 345 helpful votes

Is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I am only joking!”

Proverbs 18:7 ESV / 320 helpful votes

A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.

Proverbs 10:23 ESV / 316 helpful votes

Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.

Proverbs 26:3-12 ESV / 271 helpful votes

A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence. Like a lame man's legs, which hang useless, is a proverb in the mouth of fools. ...

Proverbs 14:7-9 ESV / 265 helpful votes

Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving. Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance.

Titus 3:1-11 ESV / 255 helpful votes

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ...

Proverbs 14:16 ESV / 244 helpful votes

One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless.

Proverbs 17:28 ESV / 241 helpful votes

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

Proverbs 23:9 ESV / 240 helpful votes

Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.

Psalm 14:1 ESV / 229 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.

Proverbs 13:20 ESV / 199 helpful votes

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Proverbs 12:16 ESV / 193 helpful votes

The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult.

Proverbs 3:35 ESV / 183 helpful votes

The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace.

Ecclesiastes 7:9 ESV / 168 helpful votes

Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.

Proverbs 20:3 ESV / 148 helpful votes

It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.

Proverbs 14:15 ESV / 142 helpful votes

The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.

Proverbs 10:8 ESV / 140 helpful votes

The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin.

Proverbs 15:2 ESV / 137 helpful votes

The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

Proverbs 15:21 ESV / 127 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 14:29 ESV / 115 helpful votes

Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

Proverbs 15:20 ESV / 113 helpful votes

A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother.

Proverbs 10:18 ESV / 111 helpful votes

The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.

Psalm 53:1 ESV / 107 helpful votes

To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.

Proverbs 26:11 ESV / 106 helpful votes

Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

Proverbs 10:14 ESV / 106 helpful votes

The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.

Proverbs 1:22 ESV / 102 helpful votes

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?

Romans 12:2 ESV / 101 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Proverbs 14:1 ESV / 101 helpful votes

The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 100 helpful votes

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Proverbs 15:7 ESV / 98 helpful votes

The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of fools.

Titus 3:3 ESV / 93 helpful votes

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Proverbs 17:25 ESV / 89 helpful votes

A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.

Ecclesiastes 10:2 ESV / 87 helpful votes

A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left.

Matthew 7:26 ESV / 86 helpful votes

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

Proverbs 15:14 ESV / 86 helpful votes

The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.

Proverbs 9:6-8 ESV / 85 helpful votes

Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

Ecclesiastes 4:5 ESV / 80 helpful votes

The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.

Proverbs 15:5 ESV / 80 helpful votes

A fool despises his father's instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.

Psalm 107:17 ESV / 79 helpful votes

Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction;

Proverbs 26:18-19 ESV / 76 helpful votes

Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I am only joking!”

Proverbs 26:4-5 ESV / 73 helpful votes

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

James 2:20-24 ESV / 70 helpful votes

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Proverbs 10:1 ESV / 66 helpful votes

The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

1 Corinthians 1:27 ESV / 65 helpful votes

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

Isaiah 32:6 ESV / 65 helpful votes

For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

Proverbs 14:7 ESV / 65 helpful votes

Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.

Proverbs 17:24 ESV / 64 helpful votes

The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.

Psalm 14:1-4 ESV / 63 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?

Luke 12:16-20 ESV / 61 helpful votes

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

James 1:19-20 ESV / 60 helpful votes

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Proverbs 17:12 ESV / 60 helpful votes

Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.

Proverbs 13:16 ESV / 60 helpful votes

Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly.

Proverbs 14:8 ESV / 58 helpful votes

The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving.

Luke 12:20 ESV / 56 helpful votes

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

Proverbs 14:9 ESV / 56 helpful votes

Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance.

Proverbs 10:10 ESV / 55 helpful votes

Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin.

Proverbs 12:15 ESV / 54 helpful votes

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

1 Corinthians 3:18 ESV / 53 helpful votes

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

Proverbs 10:13 ESV / 52 helpful votes

On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.

Proverbs 21:20 ESV / 49 helpful votes

Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.

Proverbs 19:13 ESV / 49 helpful votes

A foolish son is ruin to his father, and a wife's quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.

Proverbs 9:13-17 ESV / 49 helpful votes

The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

1 John 3:8 ESV / 46 helpful votes

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Ecclesiastes 10:11-15 ESV / 45 helpful votes

If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer. The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him? The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV / 44 helpful votes

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Proverbs 12:23 ESV / 44 helpful votes

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

Matthew 23:17 ESV / 42 helpful votes

You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

Proverbs 26:4 ESV / 42 helpful votes

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.

Proverbs 27:22 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him.

Proverbs 9:7 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

Galatians 6:7-8 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Mark 7:21-23 ESV / 40 helpful votes

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Ecclesiastes 10:12 ESV / 40 helpful votes

The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him.

Psalm 111:10 ESV / 39 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

Psalm 5:5 ESV / 38 helpful votes

The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.

Proverbs 26:5 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 35 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 34 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

Ecclesiastes 10:15 ESV / 34 helpful votes

The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.

Proverbs 29:20 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Proverbs 26:1-28 ESV / 32 helpful votes

Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool. Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. ...

Ephesians 5:6 ESV / 31 helpful votes

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Matthew 25:1-13 ESV / 31 helpful votes

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. ...

1 Corinthians 5:5 ESV / 29 helpful votes

You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Luke 12:16-21 ESV / 27 helpful votes

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ...

Luke 10:20 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Isaiah 45:7 ESV / 25 helpful votes

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

Romans 1:14 ESV / 24 helpful votes

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

Luke 16:19-31 ESV / 24 helpful votes

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. ...

Psalm 37:23 ESV / 24 helpful votes

The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way;

Romans 1:20 ESV / 23 helpful votes

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15 ESV / 21 helpful votes

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Isaiah 1:1-31 ESV / 20 helpful votes

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ...

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