Bible Strands
Proverbs 1:29
For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Wisdom addresses the simple and scoffers in the opening discourse of Proverbs, immediately after warning that desperate pleas for help will be ignored. The speaker identifies the root cause of their impending judgment as a deliberate rejection of divine guidance.
The words — The text highlights שָׂ֣נְאוּ (Sa.ne.'u) = they hated and בָחָֽרוּ (va.Cha.ru) = they chose, pairing active aversion with deliberate selection. This pairing shows that rejecting instruction is an intentional act, not a passive oversight.
The thread — This pattern of willful rejection appears in Proverbs 1:22, where fools are asked how long they will hate knowledge. It echoes Job 21:14, where people demand God leave them alone because they refuse to know His ways, and contrasts with Proverbs 6:23, which presents discipline as the path to life.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that spiritual blindness begins with a conscious choice to despise instruction and reject reverence. It requires the reader to examine whether they are actively pursuing wisdom or deliberately avoiding it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:
Cross-references
- Proverbs 6:23 For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,
- Job 21:14 Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
- Proverbs 1:22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Isaiah 27:11 When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
- Hebrews 11:25 He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin.
- Psalms 50:16 To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips?
- Proverbs 5:12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
- Luke 10:42 But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”
- John 3:20 Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
- Acts 7:51 You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.