Proverbs 9:6
in Proverbs 9Leave your folly behind, and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Leave off, ye simple ones, and live; And walk in the way of understanding.
KJV
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
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This verse in Proverbs 9
Commentary
6 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
Wisdom has built her house
on Proverbs 9:1-6
Wisdom “has built her house; she has carved out her seven pillars,” and seven is the book's figure of completeness. The words “Leave your folly behind, and you will live” name the cost before the gift, an exchange the guest must make to sit down.
This site's exposition
Leave your folly behind, and you will live
The King James reads forsake the foolish, the company, and the Berean reads leave your folly behind, the condition. Barnes pictures the simple standing where the paths to life and death divide. This verse names the turn.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Forsake foolishness and live, etc. After offering the feast, he also adds the admonitions of life, so that those whom he refreshed with the mysteries of his incarnation, he may also instruct equally with the words of his teaching.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
. [1.] They must break off from all bad company: " Forsake the foolish, converse not with them, conform not to their ways, have no fellowship with the works of darkness, or with those that deal in such works." The first step towards virtue is to shun vice, and therefore to shun the vicious.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
Forsake the foolish,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Forsake the foolish - For the companion of fools must be a fool. And live - Answer the end for which thou wert born.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עִזְב֣וּ | ʾizvu | abandon | H5800 → | 215 times |
| פְתָאיִ֣ם | fetayim | foolish things | H6612 → | 19 times |
| וִֽחְי֑וּ | vichyu | and live | H2421 → | 282 times |
| וְ֝אִשְׁר֗וּ | veishru | and advance | H833 → | 16 times |
| בְּדֶ֣רֶךְ | bederekh | in [the] way of | H1870 → | 707 times |
| בִּינָֽה׃ | binah | understanding | H998 → | 38 times |
עִזְב֣וּabandon
ʾizvuH5800 →215 times
פְתָאיִ֣םfoolish things
fetayimH6612 →19 times
וִֽחְי֑וּand live
vichyuH2421 →282 times
וְ֝אִשְׁר֗וּand advance
veishruH833 →16 times
בְּדֶ֣רֶךְin [the] way of
bederekhH1870 →707 times
בִּינָֽה׃understanding
binahH998 →38 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Corinthians 6:17“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
it leads to
- Revelation 18:4
Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 52:11
Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- 2 Corinthians 7:1
Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
- Psalms 1:1–3
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.
- Revelation 18:4
Through
Proverbs 13:20He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 15:33–34
Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
- Proverbs 15:31
He who listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.
- 2 Corinthians 6:14–18
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
- Psalms 119:63
I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts.
- 1 Corinthians 15:33–34
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
On this chapter
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.