2182 verses about Discernment

She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp doesn’t go out by night.

She opens her mouth with wisdom. Faithful instruction is on her tongue.

I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind.

I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.

Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.

The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness—and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.

Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil.

For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool’s speech with a multitude of words.

For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.

Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.

Don’t be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

All this I have proved in wisdom. I said, “I will be wise”; but it was far from me.

That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?

I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.

“Behold, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “to one another, to find out the scheme;

which my soul still seeks; but I have not found. I have found one man among a thousand; but I have not found a woman among all those.

Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him.

When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),

then I saw all the work of God, that man can’t find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won’t find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won’t be able to find it.

For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.

There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.

The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools.

A wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s heart at his left.

Yes also, when the fool walks by the way, his understanding fails him, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.

If the snake bites before it is charmed, then is there no profit for the charmer’s tongue.

The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but a fool is swallowed by his own lips.

The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn’t know how to go to the city.

Further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered, sought out, and set in order many proverbs.

The words of the wise are like goads; and like nails well fastened are words from the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder,

the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’

Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”

He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

For Yahweh spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

When they tell you, “Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter:” shouldn’t a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.

The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.

However he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.

Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.

His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears;

Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive!

The spirit of Egypt will fail within it. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.

Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt.

For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.

When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.”

He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.

The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”

The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”

For his God instructs him in right judgment, and teaches him.

This also comes out from Yahweh of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.

All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please”; and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed:”

therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”

They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction.”

who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and to the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.

Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers;

and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”

The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

“Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.

When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.

You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.

Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears.

They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.

who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;

No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of Yahweh’s servants, and their righteousness is of me,” says Yahweh.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh.

His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

Behold, I have today set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”

Yahweh’s word came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?” I said, “I see a boiling cauldron; and it is tipping away from the north.”

“You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and say to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.

For, behold, I have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding; who have eyes, and don’t see; who have ears, and don’t hear:

“I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.

Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times. The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.

The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected Yahweh’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?

Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth; for I delight in these things,” says Yahweh.

Yahweh gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it. Then you showed me their doings.

For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you! Even they have cried aloud after you! Don’t believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.

Then Yahweh said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.

I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.

Therefore Yahweh says, “If you return, then I will bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take out the precious from the vile, you will be as my mouth. They will return to you, but you will not return to them.

The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?

“I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”

For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, “Violence and destruction!” because Yahweh’s word has been made a reproach to me, and a derision, all day.

If I say, I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I can’t.

Yahweh of Armies says, “Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh.

For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has listened to my word, and heard it?

I didn’t send these prophets, yet they ran. I didn’t speak to them, yet they prophesied.