Proverbs 10:23

Proverbs 10:23, in plain English

Fools get a kick out of doing shameful things, while someone with real understanding finds joy and satisfaction in wisdom instead.

Why it's here

You probably know people like this — those who seem to enjoy being crude or inappropriate, who think tearing others down is funny. Solomon is saying that's a fundamental misalignment with how humans are actually meant to work. Understanding people find their delight elsewhere.

Who's speaking

Solomon, helping you see the difference between cheap thrills and genuine satisfaction.

Where it sits in the story

This connects to the biblical truth that we become what we delight in. The Psalms and Proverbs repeatedly show that happiness follows from loving what's actually good, not from rebellion or vice.

The scholarly reading

The fool finds pleasure in morally degrading behavior, while the wise person recognizes such conduct for what it truly is—a denial of understanding.

Language and setting

The Hebrew nabal (fool) doesn't denote mere intellectual deficiency but rather culpable resistance to moral order. The phrase yismach be-'izlat (delights in shameful conduct) employs sachlag, which emphasizes public disgrace and social disrepute. This operates within the honor-shame framework where the fool actively rejoices in behavior that undermines community cohesion and divine order—a perverse inversion of joy.

Voice

The wisdom teachers addressing young men of the upper classes, likely in scribal schools or court settings where character formation was the explicit goal.

Significance

This connects to the biblical trajectory of choosing between life and death, blessing and curse (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). The fool's delight in shame becomes, in Christian interpretation, the spiritual blindness that Paul describes—the inability to distinguish between genuine and false good, culminating in the apocalyptic inversion where the wicked call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).

21The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of judgment.

22The blessing of the LORD enriches, and He adds no sorrow to it.

23The fool delights in shameful conduct, but a man of understanding has wisdom.

24What the wicked man dreads will overtake him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

25When the whirlwind passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are secure forever.

Read all of Proverbs 10 — The collection proper begins. Paired contrasts — wise and foolish, righteous and wicked, diligent and lazy — packed into single verses.