Isaiah 44:25
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25 who frustrates the omens of soothsayers
and makes fools of diviners;
who turns back the wise
and makes their knowledge foolish;(A)
Psalm 33:10
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10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.(A)
Job 5:12-14
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12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
so that their hands achieve no success.(A)
13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness,
and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
14 They meet with darkness in the daytime
and grope at noonday as in the night.(B)
2 Samuel 15:31
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31 David was told that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, “O Lord, I pray you, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”(A)
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Jeremiah 50:36
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36 A sword against the diviners,
so that they may become fools!
A sword against her warriors,
so that they may be dismayed!(A)
Jeremiah 51:57
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57 I will make her officials and her sages drunk,
also her governors, her deputies, and her warriors;
they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake,
says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.(A)
Isaiah 47:12-14
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12 Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
perhaps you may inspire terror.(A)
13 You are wearied with your many consultations;
let those who study[a] the heavens
stand up and save you,
those who gaze at the stars
and at each new moon predict
what[b] shall befall you.(B)
14 See, they are like stubble;
the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
no fire to sit before!(C)
1 Corinthians 1:20-27
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20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?(A) 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe.(B) 22 For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles,(C) 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards,[a] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.(D) 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;(E)
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- 1.26 Gk according to the flesh
Isaiah 29:14
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14 so I will again do
amazing things with this people,
shocking and amazing.
The wisdom of their wise shall perish,
and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.(A)
Daniel 5:6-8
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6 Then the king’s face turned pale, and his thoughts terrified him. His limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.(A) 7 The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the diviners, and the king said to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever can read this writing and tell me its interpretation shall be clothed in purple, have a chain of gold around his neck, and rank third in the kingdom.”(B) 8 Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king the interpretation.(C)
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Jeremiah 27:9-10
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9 You, therefore, must not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers,[a] your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon.”(A) 10 For they are prophesying a lie to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land; I will drive you out, and you will perish.(B)
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- 27.9 Gk Syr Tg: Heb dreams
Isaiah 19:11-14
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11 Clearly the princes of Zoan are foolish;
the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the sages,
a descendant of ancient kings”?(A)
12 Where now are your sages?
Let them tell you and make known
what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.(B)
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,
and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of its tribes
have led Egypt astray.(C)
14 The Lord has poured into them[a]
a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings
as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.(D)
Footnotes
- 19.14 Gk Compare Tg: Heb it
1 Corinthians 3:19-20
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19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,
“He catches the wise in their craftiness,”(A)
20 and again,
“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,
that they are futile.”
Daniel 4:7
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7 Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the diviners came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not tell me its interpretation.(A)
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Daniel 2:10-12
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10 The Chaldeans answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can reveal what the king demands! In fact, no king, however great and powerful, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. 11 The thing that the king is asking is too difficult, and no one can reveal it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with mortals.”(A)
12 Because of this the king flew into a violent rage and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed.
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Daniel 1:20
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20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding concerning which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.(A)
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Jeremiah 49:7
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Judgment on Edom
7 Concerning Edom.
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?
Has counsel perished from the prudent?
Has their wisdom vanished?(A)
Jeremiah 28:9-17
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9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”(A)
10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it.(B) 11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: This is how I will break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.” At this, the prophet Jeremiah went his way.(C)
12 Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:(D) 13 Go, tell Hananiah, Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars only to forge iron bars in place of them!(E) 14 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations so that they may serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they shall indeed serve him; I have even given him the wild animals.(F) 15 And the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you made this people trust in a lie.(G) 16 Therefore thus says the Lord: I am going to send you off the face of the earth. Within this year you will be dead, for you have spoken rebellion against the Lord.”(H)
17 In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.
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2 Chronicles 18:34
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34 The battle grew hot that day, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Arameans until evening; then at sunset he died.
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2 Chronicles 18:11
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11 All the prophets were prophesying the same and saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”(A)
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1 Kings 22:22-25
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22 ‘How?’ the Lord asked him. He replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then the Lord[a] said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do it.’(A) 23 So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has decreed disaster for you.”(B)
24 Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah came up to Micaiah, slapped him on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the spirit of the Lord pass from me to speak to you?”(C) 25 Micaiah replied, “You will find out on that day when you go in to hide in an inner chamber.”(D)
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- 22.22 Heb he
1 Kings 22:11-12
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11 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron, and he said, “Thus says the Lord: With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.”(A) 12 All the prophets were prophesying the same and saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”
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2 Samuel 17:23
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23 When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order and hanged himself; he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.(A)
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2 Samuel 16:23
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23 Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the oracle[a] of God, so all the counsel of Ahithophel was esteemed both by David and by Absalom.(A)
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- 16.23 Heb word
Exodus 9:11
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11 The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils afflicted the magicians as well as all the Egyptians.
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