What Does Proverbs 14:6 Mean?
A scorner seeks wisdom, and it is not there, but knowledge is light for the one who discerns.
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
A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.THE KEY
A search for wisdom can stay empty when contempt blocks discernment, while knowledge comes easily to a mind that can distinguish.
THE MEANING
You can search for wisdom and still find no foothold when contempt shapes the search. For the discerning, knowledge is easy to receive because they can perceive what is before them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Wanting wisdom guarantees that you are open to it.
THE ROOT
לֵץ
lēṣ
GROWS FROM
לוץ
The root לוץ (l-w-ṣ; lūts) means to mock or speak with contempt.
The Hebrew for “scorner” names a posture of mockery, so the verse locates the failed search in the seeker’s way of meeting wisdom. Contempt can ask for wisdom while refusing to be addressed by it.
ALSO GROWS
lāṣôn: mockery, scorn
לָצוֹן
This names the scorn itself, showing that the seeker’s stance can shape what the search is able to receive.
lēṣîm: scorners
לֵצִים
The plural form names others who share this posture, making scorn a way of relating to wisdom rather than a one-time failure.
נָבוֹן
nāvōn
GROWS FROM
בין
The root בּין (b-y-n; bīn) means to discern, distinguish, or understand.
“discerns” in this verse is nāvōn. The word for the person who understands comes from a root that also carries the idea of distinguishing. Knowledge comes easily where the mind can perceive what belongs together and what differs.
ALSO GROWS
bīnāh: understanding, discernment
בִּינָה
This branch names the capacity to perceive distinctions that lets knowledge become clear.
bēn: between
בֵּין
The shared root links understanding with perceiving what lies between or differs among things.
דַּעַת
daʿat
GROWS FROM
ידע
The root יָדַע (y-d-ʿ; yādaʿ) means to know or perceive through encounter.
The verse’s “knowledge” is tied to knowing and perceiving, not merely collecting information. It places this kind of knowing within reach of the discerning, who can recognize and receive what is shown.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: to know, perceive
יָדַע
The verb behind this noun connects knowledge with the act of knowing and perceiving.
yōdēaʿ: one who knows
יֹדֵעַ
This form describes a person who knows, linking knowledge with the one who perceives.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom becomes accessible through a receptive stance that can receive instruction.
Set before the wise one, and he grows yet wiser; make known to the aligned one, and he adds to what is taken in.He sets the bowed ones walking in judgment, and teaches the bowed his way.But if any of you is left behind in wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without doubling and without taunting, and it will be given him.THE THREAD
Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you; reprove the wise one, and he will love you.This verse uses the same Hebrew word, לֵץ (lēṣ, “scorner”), so the link is rooted in the vocabulary itself. Its paired responses make the mechanism visible: correction turns the scorner toward hatred, while a wise person receives rebuke with love.
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