Bible Strands
Proverbs 17:16
Why should the fool have money in his hand with no intention of buying wisdom?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom author addresses a listener within a structured collection of moral instructions. The verse sits between a warning against perverting justice and a definition of loyal friendship.
The words — כְּסִיל (ke.Sil) means a fool, and חָכְמָה (chokh.mah) means wisdom. The syntax frames wisdom as a commodity that requires a price.
The thread — Proverbs 23:23 commands investing in wisdom and instruction without selling it. Proverbs 21:25 shows the parallel failure of the slacker whose hands refuse to work, while Deuteronomy 5:29 links a proper heart to keeping commandments.
Why it lands — The text requires that money be actively spent to gain understanding rather than left idle. It demands the reader assign a practical purpose to their resources.
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
Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?
Cross-references
- Proverbs 21:25 The craving of the slacker kills him because his hands refuse to work.
- Proverbs 23:23 Invest in truth and never sell it—in wisdom and instruction and understanding.
- Deuteronomy 5:29 If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever.
- Proverbs 8:4 “To you, O men, I call out, and my cry is to the sons of men.
- Proverbs 18:15 The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks it out.
- Acts 28:26 ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
- 2 Corinthians 6:1 As God’s fellow workers, then, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.
- Psalms 81:11 But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
- 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?
- Proverbs 9:4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” she says to him who lacks judgment.