Bible Strands
Proverbs 24:7
Wisdom is too high for a fool; he does not open his mouth in the meeting place.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom teacher addresses a listener preparing for decisive action, immediately following instructions on gathering counselors before warfare. The instruction falls within a sequence of practical warnings about conduct and judgment.
The words — בַּ֝/שַּׁ֗עַר (ba.sha'ar) = in the gate, denoting the formal assembly place, and רָאמ֣וֹת (ra.mot) = [are] high, describing the elevated standard of wisdom.
The thread — This theme of spiritual and practical blindness recurs in Proverbs 14:6, Psalms 10:5, and 1 Corinthians 2:14, where the unperceptive or hostile reject discernment and divine counsel.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to acknowledge that self-reliance and moral blindness prevent wise counsel, demanding a deliberate turn to external guidance and teachable humility.
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
Wisdom is too high for a fool: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 14:6 A mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.
- Psalms 10:5 He is secure in his ways at all times; Your lofty judgments are far from him; he sneers at all his foes.
- 1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- Psalms 92:5 How great are Your works, O LORD, how deep are Your thoughts!
- Job 5:4 His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
- Job 29:7 When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,
- Job 31:21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,
- Proverbs 15:24 The path of life leads upward for the wise, that he may avoid going down to Sheol.
- Proverbs 17:24 Wisdom is the focus of the discerning, but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.
- Proverbs 22:22 Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate,