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Only a simpleton would not know,
    and only a fool would not understand this:

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Senseless people(A) do not know,
    fools do not understand,

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22 I was so foolish and ignorant—
    I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.

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22 I was senseless(A) and ignorant;
    I was a brute beast(B) before you.

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Think again, you fools!
    When will you finally catch on?

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Take notice, you senseless ones(A) among the people;
    you fools, when will you become wise?

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10 Those who are wise must finally die,
    just like the foolish and senseless,
    leaving all their wealth behind.

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10 For all can see that the wise die,(A)
    that the foolish and the senseless(B) also perish,
    leaving their wealth(C) to others.(D)

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14 But people who aren’t spiritual[a] can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:14 Or who don’t have the Spirit; or who have only physical life.

14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God(A) but considers them foolishness,(B) and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

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14 The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge!
    The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make,
for their carefully shaped works are a fraud.
    These idols have no breath or power.

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14 Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
    every goldsmith is shamed(A) by his idols.
The images he makes are a fraud;(B)
    they have no breath in them.

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22 “How long, you simpletons,
    will you insist on being simpleminded?
How long will you mockers relish your mocking?
    How long will you fools hate knowledge?

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22 “How long will you who are simple(A) love your simple ways?
    How long will mockers delight in mockery
    and fools hate(B) knowledge?

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20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’

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20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool!(A) This very night your life will be demanded from you.(B) Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’(C)

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Even an ox knows its owner,
    and a donkey recognizes its master’s care—
but Israel doesn’t know its master.
    My people don’t recognize my care for them.”

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The ox knows(A) its master,
    the donkey its owner’s manger,(B)
but Israel does not know,(C)
    my people do not understand.(D)

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I am too stupid to be human,
    and I lack common sense.

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Surely I am only a brute, not a man;
    I do not have human understanding.

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Wisdom is too lofty for fools.
    Among leaders at the city gate, they have nothing to say.

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Saying 23

Wisdom is too high for fools;
    in the assembly at the gate they must not open their mouths.

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Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
    that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

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Do not be like the horse or the mule,
    which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle(A)
    or they will not come to you.

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Psalm 14

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

Only fools say in their hearts,
    “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;
    not one of them does good!

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Psalm 14(A)

For the director of music. Of David.

The fool[a] says in his heart,
    “There is no God.”(B)
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
    there is no one who does good.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 14:1 The Hebrew words rendered fool in Psalms denote one who is morally deficient.