Bible Strands
Proverbs 14:16
A wise man fears and turns from evil, but a fool is careless and reckless.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Wisdom literature, traditionally Solomon's, addressed to a general audience of young men being trained in discernment. No specific occasion or narrative frame.
The words — יָ֭רֵא (yāreʾ, "fearing") and מִתְעַבֵּר (mityaʿber, "arrogant") form the real contrast; the BSB renders the latter "careless," but the Hebrew names the root sin as self-exaltation.
The thread — Proverbs 3:7 pairs the same two verbs—fear and turn away from evil—in a single command. Proverbs 22:3 restates the prudent-vs-simple dynamic with the same structural logic.
Why it lands — The verse identifies overconfidence, not ignorance, as the fool's defining trait, and makes fear the engine of moral action rather than its opposite.
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
A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 22:3 The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.
- Proverbs 3:7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from every form of evil.
- Genesis 42:18 and on the third day he said to them, “I fear God. So do this and you will live:
- Proverbs 29:9 If a wise man goes to court with a fool, there will be raving and laughing with no resolution.
- Genesis 33:9 “I already have plenty, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what belongs to you.”
- 1 Kings 20:10 Then Ben-hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if enough dust remains of Samaria for each of my men to have a handful.”
- Job 31:21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,
- Proverbs 16:6 By loving devotion and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns aside from evil.
- Proverbs 16:17 The highway of the upright leads away from evil; he who guards his way protects his life.