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100 Bible Verses about Understanding

Proverbs 18:2 ESV / 758 helpful votes

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

Psalm 119:130 ESV / 611 helpful votes

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.

Proverbs 14:29 ESV / 540 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 2:2-5 ESV / 464 helpful votes

Making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 4:7 ESV / 456 helpful votes

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.

Proverbs 17:27 ESV / 350 helpful votes

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

Proverbs 3:5 ESV / 344 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

2 Timothy 3:1-17 ESV / 316 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. ...

Colossians 4:6 ESV / 291 helpful votes

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

2 Timothy 2:7 ESV / 234 helpful votes

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

Proverbs 3:13-18 ESV / 233 helpful votes

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. ...

James 1:5 ESV / 212 helpful votes

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Isaiah 40:28 ESV / 186 helpful votes

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

Proverbs 2:6 ESV / 182 helpful votes

For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

Proverbs 9:10 ESV / 177 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Job 28:28 ESV / 174 helpful votes

And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

Proverbs 20:5 ESV / 166 helpful votes

The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

Proverbs 12:1-28 ESV / 141 helpful votes

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he condemns. No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved. An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful. ...

James 1:2-4 ESV / 140 helpful votes

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV / 134 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 121 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Ephesians 1:17-18 ESV / 119 helpful votes

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

Philippians 4:7 ESV / 118 helpful votes

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 ESV / 118 helpful votes

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ...

Psalm 119:34 ESV / 111 helpful votes

Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.

Proverbs 3:13 ESV / 107 helpful votes

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding,

Colossians 1:9 ESV / 104 helpful votes

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Philippians 4:19 ESV / 101 helpful votes

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 111:10 ESV / 99 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!

1 John 5:20 ESV / 98 helpful votes

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Ephesians 4:18 ESV / 97 helpful votes

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

1 Corinthians 2:12 ESV / 92 helpful votes

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 84 helpful votes

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Proverbs 2:11-16 ESV / 84 helpful votes

Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. ...

Jeremiah 9:23-24 ESV / 82 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Proverbs 1:5 ESV / 75 helpful votes

Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,

Psalm 34:13 ESV / 75 helpful votes

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Isaiah 55:9 ESV / 74 helpful votes

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Ephesians 1:17 ESV / 68 helpful votes

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 65 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 1:18 ESV / 64 helpful votes

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

2 Peter 3:18 ESV / 62 helpful votes

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

James 1:13 ESV / 61 helpful votes

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

Colossians 1:9-29 ESV / 61 helpful votes

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ...

Colossians 2:2-3 ESV / 60 helpful votes

That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Romans 11:33 ESV / 57 helpful votes

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Ecclesiastes 11:5 ESV / 57 helpful votes

As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

John 3:3 ESV / 56 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Colossians 2:1-23 ESV / 55 helpful votes

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ...

Proverbs 4:5 ESV / 54 helpful votes

Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

Matthew 19:26 ESV / 53 helpful votes

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Psalm 119:104 ESV / 53 helpful votes

Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Proverbs 16:22 ESV / 51 helpful votes

Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly.

Proverbs 3:1-13:25 ESV / 51 helpful votes

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ...

Proverbs 8:1 ESV / 49 helpful votes

Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice?

Proverbs 4:1-5:23 ESV / 49 helpful votes

Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. ...

Psalm 145:3 ESV / 49 helpful votes

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 ESV / 48 helpful votes

But test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

John 5:1-20:31 ESV / 48 helpful votes

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ...

Luke 24:45 ESV / 48 helpful votes

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

Proverbs 14:1-29:27 ESV / 48 helpful votes

The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down. Whoever walks in uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is devious in his ways despises him. By the mouth of a fool comes a rod for his back, but the lips of the wise will preserve them. Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox. A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies. ...

Acts 17:11 ESV / 47 helpful votes

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Jeremiah 33:3 ESV / 47 helpful votes

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

2 Corinthians 10:3 ESV / 45 helpful votes

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

2 Corinthians 4:18 ESV / 45 helpful votes

As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Mark 9:35 ESV / 45 helpful votes

And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

Proverbs 21:2 ESV / 45 helpful votes

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.

Proverbs 16:16 ESV / 45 helpful votes

How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

Psalm 119:67 ESV / 45 helpful votes

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

Psalm 32:8 ESV / 45 helpful votes

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Isaiah 45:9 ESV / 43 helpful votes

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?

Proverbs 19:21 ESV / 43 helpful votes

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Psalm 90:4 ESV / 43 helpful votes

For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

Psalm 90:2 ESV / 43 helpful votes

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

John 3:16 ESV / 42 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Proverbs 1:7 ESV / 42 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 2:9 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;

Psalm 34:19 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

James 3:17 ESV / 40 helpful votes

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

John 3:1-36 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ...

Psalm 147:5 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.

Proverbs 4:2 ESV / 39 helpful votes

For I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.

Isaiah 40:2 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

1 John 2:9-11 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Proverbs 15:14 ESV / 37 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 14:6 ESV / 37 helpful votes

A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.

Proverbs 12:1 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Isaiah 45:1-49:26 ESV / 36 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, ...

1 Corinthians 15:34 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

1 Corinthians 10:1-13:13 ESV / 35 helpful votes

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. ...

1 Corinthians 4:18 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.

1 Corinthians 2:13 ESV / 35 helpful votes

And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

1 Corinthians 2:1-10:33 ESV / 35 helpful votes

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. ...

John 20:8-9 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11:10 ESV / 35 helpful votes

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ...

Proverbs 18:15 ESV / 35 helpful votes

An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

John 16:13 ESV / 34 helpful votes

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Psalm 139:4 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

Psalm 90:1-94:23 ESV / 34 helpful votes

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: ...

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 34 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

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