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Sunday, July 20th, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Proverbs 24:7

22

Wise conversation is way over the head of fools; in a serious discussion they haven't a clue.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Wisdom;   Young Men;   The Topic Concordance - Foolishness;   Wisdom;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Greek Versions of Ot;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - High;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Coral;   Fool;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Coral;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Wisdom is inaccessible to a fool;he does not open his mouth at the city gate.
Hebrew Names Version
Wisdom is too high for a fool: He doesn't open his mouth in the gate.
King James Version
Wisdom is too high for a fool: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.
English Standard Version
Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he does not open his mouth.
New American Standard Bible
Wisdom is too exalted for a fool, He does not open his mouth at the gate.
New Century Version
Foolish people cannot understand wisdom. They have nothing to say in a discussion.
Amplified Bible
Wisdom is too exalted for a [hardened, arrogant] fool; He does not open his mouth in the gate [where the city's rulers sit in judgment].
World English Bible
Wisdom is too high for a fool: He doesn't open his mouth in the gate.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Wisdome is hie to a foole: therefore he can not open his mouth in the gate.
Legacy Standard Bible
Wisdom is too exalted for an ignorant fool,He does not open his mouth in the gate.
Berean Standard Bible
Wisdom is too high for a fool; he does not open his mouth in the meeting place.
Contemporary English Version

-22-

Wisdom is too much for fools! Their advice is no good.
Complete Jewish Bible
Wisdom is too lofty for a fool; he keeps his mouth shut at the city gate.
Darby Translation
Wisdom is too high for a fool: he will not open his mouth in the gate.
Easy-to-Read Version
Fools cannot understand wisdom. They have nothing to say when people are discussing important things.
George Lamsa Translation
Wisdom crushes a fool; he opens not his mouth in the gate.
Good News Translation

-22-

Wise sayings are too deep for stupid people to understand. They have nothing to say when important matters are being discussed.
Lexham English Bible
Wisdom is too high for fools; at the gate he will not open his mouth.
Literal Translation
Wisdom is too high for a fool, he does not open his mouth in the gate.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Wy?dome is an hie thinge, yee eue to ye foole, for he darre not ope his mouth in ye gate.
American Standard Version
Wisdom is too high for a fool: He openeth not his mouth in the gate.
Bible in Basic English
Wisdom is outside the power of the foolish: he keeps his mouth shut in the public place.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Wisdom is as unattainable to a fool as corals; he openeth not his mouth in the gate.
King James Version (1611)
Wisedome is too high for a foole: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wysdome is to hye a thyng for a foole: for he dare not open his mouth in the gate.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Wisdom and good understanding are in the gates of the wise: the wise turn not aside from the mouth of the Lord,
English Revised Version
Wisdom is too high for a fool: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Wisdom is hiy to a fool; in the yate he schal not opene his mouth.
Update Bible Version
Wisdom is too high for a fool: He does not open his mouth in the gate.
Webster's Bible Translation
Wisdom [is] too high for a fool: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.
New English Translation
Wisdom is unattainable for a fool; in court he does not open his mouth.
New King James Version
Wisdom is too lofty for a fool; He does not open his mouth in the gate.
New Living Translation
Wisdom is too lofty for fools. Among leaders at the city gate, they have nothing to say.
New Life Bible
Wisdom is too hard for a fool to understand. He does not open his mouth in the gate.
New Revised Standard
Wisdom is too high for fools; in the gate they do not open their mouths.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Unattainable to a foolish man, are the dictates of wisdom, in the gate, he openeth not his mouth.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he shall not open his mouth.
Revised Standard Version
Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he does not open his mouth.
Young's Literal Translation
Wisdom [is] high for a fool, In the gate he openeth not his mouth.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Wisdom is too exalted for a fool, He does not open his mouth in the gate.

Contextual Overview

7

22

Wise conversation is way over the head of fools; in a serious discussion they haven't a clue.
823 The person who's always cooking up some evil soon gets a reputation as prince of rogues. Fools incubate sin; cynics desecrate beauty.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

too: Proverbs 14:6, Proverbs 15:24, Proverbs 17:24, Psalms 10:5, Psalms 92:5, Psalms 92:6, 1 Corinthians 2:14

openeth: Proverbs 22:22, Proverbs 31:8, Proverbs 31:9, Job 29:7-25, Job 31:21, Isaiah 29:21, Amos 5:10, Amos 5:12, Amos 5:15

Reciprocal: Judges 14:14 - they could Psalms 71:19 - Thy righteousness Proverbs 28:5 - General Proverbs 31:23 - in the Matthew 16:18 - and the

Cross-References

Genesis 24:1
Abraham was now an old man. God had blessed Abraham in every way.
Genesis 24:5
The servant answered, "But what if the woman refuses to leave home and come with me? Do I then take your son back to your home country?"
Genesis 24:6
Abraham said, "Oh no. Never. By no means are you to take my son back there. God , the God of Heaven, took me from the home of my father and from the country of my birth and spoke to me in solemn promise, ‘I'm giving this land to your descendants.' This God will send his angel ahead of you to get a wife for my son. And if the woman won't come, you are free from this oath you've sworn to me. But under no circumstances are you to take my son back there."
Genesis 24:18
She said, "Certainly, drink!" And she held the jug so that he could drink. When he had satisfied his thirst she said, "I'll get water for your camels, too, until they've drunk their fill." She promptly emptied her jug into the trough and ran back to the well to fill it, and she kept at it until she had watered all the camels. The man watched, silent. Was this God 's answer? Had God made his trip a success or not?
Deuteronomy 34:4
Then and there God said to him, "This is the land I promised to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with the words ‘I will give it to your descendants.' I've let you see it with your own eyes. There it is. But you're not going to go in."
Judges 2:1
God 's angel went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you out of Egypt; I led you to the land that I promised to your fathers; and I said, I'll never break my covenant with you—never! And you're never to make a covenant with the people who live in this land. Tear down their altars! But you haven't obeyed me! What's this that you're doing?
Psalms 32:8
Let me give you some good advice; I'm looking you in the eye and giving it to you straight:
Psalms 34:7
God 's angel sets up a circle of protection around us while we pray.
Daniel 2:44
"But throughout the history of these kingdoms, the God of heaven will be building a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will this kingdom ever fall under the domination of another. In the end it will crush the other kingdoms and finish them off and come through it all standing strong and eternal. It will be like the stone cut from the mountain by the invisible hand that crushed the iron, the bronze, the ceramic, the silver, and the gold. "The great God has let the king know what will happen in the years to come. This is an accurate telling of the dream, and the interpretation is also accurate."
Jonah 1:9
He told them, "I'm a Hebrew. I worship God , the God of heaven who made sea and land."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Wisdom [is] too high for a fool,.... It is out of his reach, he cannot attain it; natural wisdom, or the knowledge of many things in nature; at least it seems so to himself, and therefore will not take any pains, or make use of any means, to obtain it; as the knowledge of human laws; of medicine, of philosophy, of languages, or of any of the liberal arts and sciences; or he has not really a capacity for it. This is more especially true of spiritual wisdom, or of the knowledge of divine things in a spiritual way; or of the things Of the Spirit of God, which a natural man cannot know, because they are spiritually discerned; it is God only makes men to know this kind of wisdom in the hidden part, 1 Corinthians 2:14; for as a "fool" here denotes a wicked man, let his natural parts be what they will; so wisdom spiritual knowledge, and experience of divine things, which is too high for an unregenerate man to reach; see a like phrase in Psalms 139:6;

he openeth not his mouth in the gate; he is not qualified far it; and if he has any knowledge of himself, he will not venture to speak in a public assembly, in the house of parliament, in a court of judicature, or in the company of men of knowledge and sense; and indeed it is his highest wisdom to keep silence, and not betray his ignorance: and so with regard to spiritual things; a man that wisdom is too high for, and he has no share of it, shall not or ought not to open his mouth where Wisdom cries; even in the gates of the cities, or in the public assemblies of the saints, Proverbs 1:21.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the gate - Compare the Proverbs 22:22 note.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 24:7. A fool - openeth not his mouth in the gate. — Is not put into public offices of trust and responsibility.


 
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