Ewil describes a foolish person or posture within wisdom and prophetic speech. Proverbs identifies this foolishness through despising wisdom, trusting one's own judgment, mocking amends and seeking quarrels.
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Full entry for אֱוִיל (H191) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ewil describes a foolish person or posture within wisdom and prophetic speech. Proverbs identifies this foolishness through despising wisdom, trusting one's own judgment, mocking amends and seeking quarrels.
The BSB source-word alignment has 26 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a fool (6), Fools (3), of a fool (2), [but] fools (1), A fool’s (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Job 5:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Proverbs (19), Isaiah (2), Job (2), Hosea (1).
Ewil describes a foolish person or posture within wisdom and prophetic speech. Proverbs identifies this foolishness through despising wisdom, trusting one's own judgment, mocking amends and seeking quarrels. The contrast is moral and practical rather than a measurement of intelligence, education or medical condition. The same collection observes that even a fool may appear wise by remaining silent, which tests speech without requiring harmed people to suppress testimony.
Jeremiah addresses a people skilled at doing evil but unwilling to know God or do good. Other occurrences belong to attributed speech or disputed descriptions, so the label must not be treated as a universal diagnosis detached from its speaker. Teaching can invite teachability, listening and repair while refusing contempt for a person's capacity or background.
Its strongest use is to expose a resistant response that can be corrected, rather than to give a community an immutable name for someone it wants to dismiss.
The selected fool passages describe rejection of wisdom, self-certainty, mocked amends, restrained speech, quarrels and Jeremiah's charge that the people are skilled in evil.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Fools despise wisdom and discipline in contrast with the fear of the Lord, locating the contrast in response rather than measured intelligence.
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to counsel.
The fool trusts the rightness of his own way while the wise person listens to counsel, making teachability the stated contrast.
Fools mock the making of amends, but goodwill is found among the upright.
Mocking the making of amends is opposed to goodwill among the upright, so repair receives attention rather than ridicule.
Even a fool is considered wise if he keeps silent, and discerning when he holds his tongue.
Silence can make even a fool appear wise, an observation about speech and appearance rather than a ban on questions or reporting harm.
It is honorable for a man to resolve a dispute, but any fool will quarrel.
Resolving a dispute is honorable, while the fool pursues quarrels; the saying tests conflict behavior instead of condemning every disagreement.
“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
The prophetic charge contrasts skill at doing evil with failure to know God and do good, within the announcement of coming devastation.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Describes moral and spiritual deficiency, not mere intellectual limitation; fool rejects divine wisdom and order
Describes moral and spiritual deficiency, not mere intellectual limitation; fool rejects divine wisdom and order
(figuratively) silly BDB: foolish Usage: fool(-ish) (man).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 26 lexical occurrence verses.
The term highlights the exposure of Egypt’s supposed wisdom.Hosea 9:7-9
Prophet is derided rather than heard.Isaiah 19:11-15
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Proverbs 12:15 gives a concrete test: the fool sees his own way as right, while the wise person listens to counsel. The difference does not depend on a credential or speed of thought. It concerns the willingness to receive a perspective that may expose error. Proverbs 14:9 extends that test to amends, and Proverbs 20:3 to the desire to keep a quarrel going. These responses affect other people, so correction should include repair and changed conduct.
Proverbs 17:28 also notices that silence can create the appearance of wisdom even where wisdom is lacking; it does not certify quiet people or forbid necessary testimony. Jeremiah's accusation belongs to a particular people's evil conduct and refusal to know God, not a blanket verdict on human capacity. Teachers can name stubborn self-justification without humiliating someone, explain why trustworthy counsel matters and make room for questions.
A community that uses fool language merely to dismiss criticism risks exhibiting the very resistance it is meant to examine.
Prov.12.15
The lexical identity is adjectival, often used substantivally for a fool in the local word rows. Singular and plural uses identify people or qualities; the wisdom contrast does not encode a clinical or intelligence category.
James 1:19-27 calls for readiness to hear, slowness to speak and anger, and doing the word rather than merely hearing it. This practical comparison can accompany Proverbs' teachability tests without giving a church permission to silence truthful criticism or label a person incapable of change.