What Does Proverbs 10:23 Mean?
As laughter to a fool is doing a scheme, but the discerning one has wisdom.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom.THE KEY
The fool experiences a deliberate scheme as play, while understanding sees the planning inside the mischief.
THE MEANING
Your delights reveal what your sight registers: when mischief feels like sport, the harm in the plan has dropped out of view. Understanding distinguishes amusement from harm, and wisdom belongs with that clearer sight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Playfulness does not make a harmful plan harmless; amusement can hide the harm rather than erase it.
THE ROOT
זִמָּה
zimmah
GROWS FROM
זמם
z-m-m
to devise, plot, or form a plan
“doing a scheme” in this verse is zimmah. English “mischief” can sound like random trouble, but zimmah carries the sense of deliberate design. The same root gives a word for discretion, showing that the capacity to plan can serve harm or wisdom.
ALSO GROWS
mezimmah: plan, device, or discretion
מְזִמָּה
Proverbs 1:4 uses this word for discretion, revealing that the planning capacity itself can be directed wisely or harmfully.
zamam: to devise or plot
זָמַם
The verb emphasizes that this mischief is something a mind forms, not merely an accidental lapse.
שְׂחוֹק
sechoq
GROWS FROM
שחק
s-ch-q
to laugh, play, or make sport
“As laughter to a fool is doing a scheme” in this verse is sechoq. The root holds laughter and play together with the idea of making sport. Here that playfulness attaches to a devised wrong, exposing how harm can be experienced as entertainment.
ALSO GROWS
sachaq: to laugh, play, or make sport
שָׂחַק
The verb carries the same playful quality that the verse attaches to the fool’s mischief.
mesachaqim: playing
מְשַׂחֲקִים
In Zechariah 8:5, this form describes children playing in the streets; the root’s playfulness takes its character from what it is joined to.
תְּבוּנָה
tevunah
GROWS FROM
בין
b-y-n
to discern or distinguish
“the discerning one” in this verse is tevunah. Tevunah grows from a root of discerning and distinguishing, so understanding is more than having information. It is the capacity to see the difference between amusement and a plan that harms, and wisdom belongs with that perception.
ALSO GROWS
navon: discerning, understanding
נָבוֹן
This related form describes the person able to recognize what is going on beneath the surface.
binah: understanding, discernment
בִּינָה
This noun preserves the root’s sense of distinguishing, illuminating the clear sight joined to wisdom in the verse.
THE PATTERN
What a person delights in and brings forth reveals the inner quality governing their life.
Fools mock at guilt, but among the straight ones there is favor.You love harm more than good, and lying more than speaking alignment. Selah.So every good tree makes good fruit, but the rotten tree makes evil fruit.THE THREAD
To give shrewdness to the open ones, and to the young man, knowledge and planning.The word translated “mischief” here, zimmah, shares its root with mezimmah, translated “discretion” in Proverbs 1:4. The root names the capacity to devise; the two verses reveal how differently that capacity can be directed.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us