1 Korintus 1:19

1:19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.” ¹ 

1 Korintus 1:2

1:2 to the church of God that is in Corinth, ²  to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. ³ 

1 Samuel 15:31

15:31 So Samuel followed Saul back, and Saul worshiped the Lord.

1 Samuel 16:23

16:23 So whenever the spirit from God would come upon Saul, David would take his lyre and play it. This would bring relief to Saul and make him feel better. Then the evil spirit would leave him alone. ⁴ 

1 Samuel 17:14

17:14 Now David was the youngest. While the three oldest sons followed Saul,

1 Samuel 17:23

17:23 As he was speaking with them, the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, was coming up from the battle lines of the Philistines. He spoke the way he usually did, ⁵  and David heard it.

Ayub 12:17

12:17 He ⁶  leads ⁷  counselors away stripped ⁸ 

and makes judges ⁹  into fools. ¹⁰ 

Ayub 12:20

12:20 He deprives the trusted advisers ¹¹  of speech ¹² 

and takes away the discernment ¹³  of elders.

Ayub 12:24

12:24 He deprives the leaders of the earth ¹⁴ 

of their understanding; ¹⁵ 

he makes them wander

in a trackless desert waste. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 44:25

44:25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers ¹⁷ 

and humiliates ¹⁸  the omen readers,

who overturns the counsel of the wise men ¹⁹ 

and makes their advice ²⁰  seem foolish,

Roma 1:22

1:22 Although they claimed ²¹  to be wise, they became fools

[1:19]  ¹ sn A quotation from Isa 29:14.

[1:2]  ² map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[1:2]  ³ tn Grk “theirs and ours.”

[16:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “would turn aside from upon him.”

[17:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “according to these words.”

[12:17]  ⁶ tn The personal pronoun normally present as the subject of the participle is frequently omitted (see GKC 381 §119.s).

[12:17]  ⁷ tn GKC 361-62 §116.x notes that almost as a rule a participle beginning a sentence is continued with a finite verb with or without a ו (vav). Here the participle (“leads”) is followed by an imperfect (“makes fools”) after a ו (vav).

[12:17]  ⁸ tn The word שׁוֹלָל (sholal), from the root שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder; to strip”), is an adjective expressing the state (and is in the singular, as if to say, “in the state of one naked” [GKC 375 §118.o]). The word is found in military contexts (see Mic 1:8). It refers to the carrying away of people in nakedness and shame by enemies who plunder (see also Isa 8:1-4). They will go away as slaves and captives, deprived of their outer garments. Some (cf. NAB) suggest “barefoot,” based on the LXX of Mic 1:8; but the meaning of that is uncertain. G. R. Driver wanted to derive the word from an Arabic root “to be mad; to be giddy,” forming a better parallel.

[12:17]  ⁹ sn The judges, like the counselors, are nobles in the cities. God may reverse their lot, either by captivity or by shame, and they cannot resist his power.

[12:17]  ¹⁰ tn Some translate this “makes mad” as in Isa 44:25, but this gives the wrong connotation today; more likely God shows them to be fools.

[12:20]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew נֶאֱמָנִים (ne’emanim) is the Niphal participle; it is often translated “the faithful” in the Bible. The Rabbis rather fancifully took the word from נְאֻם (nÿ’um, “oracle, utterance”) and so rendered it “those who are eloquent, fluent in words.” But that would make this the only place in the Bible where this form came from that root or any other root besides אָמַן (’aman, “confirm, support”). But to say that God takes away the speech of the truthful or the faithful would be very difficult. It has to refer to reliable men, because it is parallel to the elders or old men. The NIV has “trusted advisers,” which fits well with kings and judges and priests.

[12:20]  ¹² tn Heb “he removes the lip of the trusted ones.”

[12:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “taste,” meaning “opinion” or “decision.”

[12:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the heads of the people of the earth.”

[12:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “heart.”

[12:24]  ¹⁶ tn The text has בְּתֹהוּ לֹא־דָרֶךְ (bÿtohu lo’ darekh): “in waste – no way,” or “in a wasteland [where there is] no way,” thus, “trackless” (see the discussion of negative attributes using לֹא [lo’] in GKC 482 §152.u).

[44:25]  ¹⁷ tc The Hebrew text has בַּדִּים (baddim), perhaps meaning “empty talkers” (BDB 95 s.v. III בַּד). In the four other occurrences of this word (Job 11:3; Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30; 50:36) the context does not make the meaning of the term very clear. Its primary point appears to be that the words spoken are meaningless or false. In light of its parallelism with “omen readers,” some have proposed an emendation to בָּרִים (barim, “seers”). The Mesopotamian baru-priests were divination specialists who played an important role in court life. See R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 93-98. Rather than supporting an emendation, J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:189, n. 79) suggests that Isaiah used בַּדִּים purposively as a derisive wordplay on the Akkadian word baru (in light of the close similarity of the d and r consonants).

[44:25]  ¹⁸ tn Or “makes fools of” (NIV, NRSV); NAB and NASB both similar.

[44:25]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “who turns back the wise” (so NRSV); NIV “overthrows the learning of the wise”; TEV “The words of the wise I refute.”

[44:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “their knowledge” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[1:22]  ²¹ tn The participle φάσκοντες (faskonte") is used concessively here.