What Does Proverbs 14:7 Mean?
Go from before the fool, when you do not perceive the lips of knowledge in him.
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
Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.THE KEY
In Hebrew, “perceivest” and “knowledge” share the root ידע, so the absence of knowledge in someone’s words is itself something you can know.
THE MEANING
When you hear speech and perceive no knowledge in it, this verse treats that absence as legible. It names leaving that presence as a clear response to what the words reveal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that mere presence makes a voice worth staying near: speech without knowledge is enough to recognize the need for distance.
THE ROOT
יָדַעְתָּ
yādaʿtā
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“do not perceive” in this verse is yādaʿtā. The verb translated “perceivest” and the noun translated “knowledge” come from the same root. The verse links discernment with knowledge: what is spoken makes its presence or absence perceptible.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: To know, recognize, or perceive.
יָדַע
This is the verb in the verse: the absence of knowledge is something you can recognize.
daʿat: Knowledge or knowing.
דַּעַת
This is the word the verse places in the fool’s lips, echoing the root of “perceivest.”
שִׂפְתֵי
siftei from safah
GROWS FROM
שפה
Lip; also language, edge, or bank.
The Hebrew word for “lips” also names language and the edge of something. Speech is the audible edge of what a person knows, so the verse locates discernment in what comes across the lips.
ALSO GROWS
safah: Lip; speech or language.
שָׂפָה
“Lips of knowledge” means knowledge expressed in speech.
safah: Edge, bank, or shore.
שָׂפָה
The word’s sense of an edge echoes how speech is the boundary where what is within becomes perceptible.
THE PATTERN
A person’s speech discloses whether wisdom is present, and that discernment shapes who remains near.
The one who walks with the wise becomes wise; the one who grazes beside the dull is broken.You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.THE THREAD
For the LORD gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and discernment.The word translated “knowledge” is דַּעַת (daʿat), built from the same root ידע as “perceivest” here. Proverbs 2:6 says knowledge comes from a mouth; this verse makes speech the place where its presence, or absence, can be recognized.
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