Proverbs 14:16
Wisdom avoids danger, but folly rushes into it.
16 A wise man fears and shuns evil, but the fool is hot headed and reckless.
Wisdom avoids danger, but folly rushes into it.
To contrast the cautious restraint of the wise with the reckless confidence of fools.
Proverbs 14 gathers short sayings that display the two ways—wisdom and folly—through observable patterns of speech, conduct, and consequences. The immediate neighborhood (14:15–17) clusters around discernment versus gullibility and restraint versus impulsiveness: the prudent considers steps, the wise turns away from evil, and the quick-tempered acts foolishly. Verse 16 uses parallel contrast to show that genuine wisdom includes a sober awareness of danger and a willingness to change course. The fear described is not paralysis; it is a reverent realism that treats evil as truly hazardous. The fool’s “secure” feeling functions as self-deception, pairing hotheadedness with misplaced confidence. As part of the book’s covenant-shaped instruction, the proverb trains readers to associate humility and vigilance with wisdom, and to recognize reckless self-trust as folly.
Proverbs presents wisdom instruction for covenant life, contrasting the wise and the fool through concise sayings meant for formation in daily decisions before God.
The Fear of the LORD, the Way That Seems Right, and Wisdom for Household, Speech, and Community
Wisdom fears the LORD, discerns the way of life, builds households, speaks truth, shows kindness to the needy, and rejects the self-deceiving path that seems right but ends in death.