kesil · senseless, fool

What it means

kesil (כְּסִיל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “senseless, fool”.

Fool: not someone who knows little, but someone who despises wisdom and trusts in himself.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. Someone who scorns wisdom and thinks himself clever.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Senseless: one who will not learn, trusts himself and repeats his folly. It is a word above all of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. It comes from כָּסַל (be senseless); of the same family is כְּסִילוּת (senselessness).

• Over against the wise: the senseless son Proverbs 10:1Ecclesiastes 2:14
• The one who hates knowledge Proverbs 1:22Psalms 92:6
• He repeats his folly Proverbs 26:11Proverbs 17:12
• How to answer the senseless Proverbs 26:4Proverbs 26:5
• He dies like the wise Psalms 49:10

How we translate it

“Senseless” 67 times. This edition keeps a family of words so that each Hebrew term can be told apart: כְּסִיל = “senseless”, נָבָל and אֱוִיל = “fool”, בַּעַר = “stupid”. Twice, where it stands beside בַּעַר, it is “foolish” (Psalm 92:6) or “fool” (Psalm 49:10).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• senseless ×67
• foolish ×2
• fool ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Psalms×3
• Proverbs×49
• Ecclesiastes×18

• Psalms 49:10

  For he sees the wise die; together the fool and the senseless perish, and leave to others their wealth.

• Psalms 92:6

  The stupid man does not know, and the foolish does not understand this:

• Psalms 94:8

  Understand, you stupid ones among the people; and you foolish ones, when will you have insight?

• Proverbs 1:22

  “How long, simple ones, will you love simpleness, and scoffers delight in scoffing for themselves, and the senseless hate knowledge?

• Proverbs 1:32

  For the turning away of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of the senseless will destroy them.

• Proverbs 3:35

  The wise will inherit honor, but the senseless carry off disgrace.

• Proverbs 8:5

  Understand, simple ones, shrewdness; and, senseless ones, understand with your heart.

• Proverbs 10:1

  The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes his father glad, but a senseless son is the grief of his mother.

• Proverbs 10:18

  He who conceals hatred has lips of falsehood, and he who spreads slander is senseless.

• Proverbs 10:23

  Like sport to the senseless one is doing infamy, and wisdom to a man of insight.

• Proverbs 12:23

  A shrewd man covers knowledge, but the heart of the senseless proclaims folly.

• Proverbs 13:16

  Every shrewd man acts with knowledge, but the senseless spreads out folly.

• Proverbs 13:19

  Desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but an abomination to the senseless is turning away from evil.

• Proverbs 13:20

  Whoever walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of the senseless will suffer harm.

• Proverbs 14:7

  Go from before a senseless man, for you will not have known lips of knowledge.

• Proverbs 14:8

  The wisdom of the shrewd is to understand his way, but the folly of the senseless is deceit.

• Proverbs 14:16

  The wise fears and turns away from evil, but the senseless becomes furious and is confident.

• Proverbs 14:24

  The crown of the wise is their riches; the folly of the senseless is folly.

• Proverbs 14:33

  In the heart of the discerning wisdom rests, and in the midst of the senseless it makes itself known.

• Proverbs 15:2

  The tongue of the wise makes knowledge good, but the mouth of the senseless pours out folly.

• Proverbs 15:7

  The lips of the wise scatter knowledge, but the heart of the senseless is not so.

• Proverbs 15:14

  The heart of the discerning seeks knowledge, but the mouth of the senseless feeds on folly.

• Proverbs 15:20

  A wise son makes a father glad, but a senseless man despises his mother.

• Proverbs 17:10

  A rebuke goes deeper into the discerning than a hundred blows into the senseless.

• Proverbs 17:12

  Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs, and not a senseless man in his folly.

• Proverbs 17:16

  Why is this price in the hand of the senseless to acquire wisdom, when sense there is none?

• Proverbs 17:21

  Whoever fathers a senseless son does it to his grief, and the father of a fool will not rejoice.

• Proverbs 17:24

  Wisdom is before the discerning, but the eyes of the senseless are on the ends of the earth.

• Proverbs 17:25

  A senseless son is vexation to his father and bitterness to the one who bore him.

• Proverbs 18:2

  The senseless takes no pleasure in insight, but only in revealing his heart.

• Proverbs 18:6

  The lips of the senseless enter into a dispute, and his mouth calls for blows.

• Proverbs 18:7

  The mouth of the senseless is ruin to him, and his lips a snare to his soul.

• Proverbs 19:1

  Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than one crooked in his lips, who is senseless.

• Proverbs 19:10

  Luxury is not fitting for the senseless, how much less for a slave to rule over princes.

• Proverbs 19:13

  Calamities to his father is a senseless son, and a continual dripping are the quarrels of a wife.

• Proverbs 19:29

  Judgments are prepared for scoffers, and blows for the back of the senseless.

• Proverbs 21:20

  Desirable treasure and oil are in the dwelling of the wise, but a senseless man swallows it up.

• Proverbs 23:9

  In the ears of a senseless man do not speak, for he will despise the prudence of your words.

• Proverbs 26:1

  Like snow in summer and like rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a senseless man.

• Proverbs 26:3

  A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of the senseless.

And 30 more times.