כְּסִיל
fool
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H3684 appears in the Book of Ecclesiastes — 17 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Ecclesiastes
- Ecclesiastes 2:14 וְ/הַ/כְּסִ֖יל conj + ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms 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.
- Ecclesiastes 2:15 הַ/כְּסִיל֙ ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms Then said I in my heart, "As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?" Then said I in my heart that this also is vanity.
- Ecclesiastes 2:16 הַ/כְּסִ֖יל הַ/כְּסִֽיל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory for ever, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!
- Ecclesiastes 4:5 הַ/כְּסִיל֙ ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself.
- Ecclesiastes 4:13 וּ/כְסִ֔יל conj + Adjective Adjective ms Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who doesn't know how to receive admonition any more.
- Ecclesiastes 5:1 הַ/כְּסִילִ֖ים ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective mp 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.
- Ecclesiastes 5:3 כְּסִ֖יל adj Adjective ms For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool's speech with a multitude of words.
- Ecclesiastes 5:4 בַּ/כְּסִילִ֑ים prep det + Adjective Adjective mp When you vow a vow to God, don't defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.
- Ecclesiastes 6:8 הַ/כְּסִ֑יל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?
- Ecclesiastes 7:4 כְּסִילִ֖ים adj Adjective mp The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
- Ecclesiastes 7:5 כְּסִילִֽים adj Adjective mp It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.
- Ecclesiastes 7:6 הַ/כְּסִ֑יל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.
- Ecclesiastes 7:9 כְּסִילִ֖ים adj Adjective mp Don't be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.
- Ecclesiastes 9:17 בַּ/כְּסִילִֽים prep det + Adjective Adjective mp The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools.
- Ecclesiastes 10:2 כְּסִ֖יל adj Adjective ms A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left.
- Ecclesiastes 10:12 כְּסִ֖יל adj Adjective ms The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but a fool is swallowed by his own lips.
- Ecclesiastes 10:15 הַ/כְּסִילִ֖ים ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective mp The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn't know how to go to the city.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“fool” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun כסיל (kᵉçîyl). It clusters heavily in Proverbs, which alone accounts for 71% of its uses. It turns up in 69 verses across 3 books, a moderately common footprint. Its earliest occurrence is Psalms 49:10. Older and newer Bibles part ways — “fool” in the King James Version, “stupid” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3684 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 69
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 69 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #569
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 569 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 69 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Proverbs 49 verses 71%
- Ecclesiastes 17 verses 25%
- Psalms 3 verses 4%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 69 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 69 verses · 100%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 3 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Fool 28×, Fools 19×, Foolish 9×
- American Standard Version†: Fool 29×, Fools 18×, Foolish 7×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Fool 37×, Fools 17×, Foolish 9×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Stupid 19×, Stupid one 15×, Fool 11×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3684 across 70† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H3684 across 70† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H3684 across 70† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3684 across 79† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 0 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
כסיל I stupid fellow, dullard, fool
כסיל II Orion (relation to above √ obscure)
כסיל III loc. in S of tribe of Judah Jos 15
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. n.m. stupid fellow, dullard, fool;—כ׳ ψ 49:11 + 44 times; pl. כְּסִילִים ψ 94:8 + 25 times;—‖ בער ψ 49:11; 92:7; 94:8, elsewhere only in WisdLt; he hates knowledge Pr 1:22; delights not in understanding 18:2; it is his sport to do mischief 10:23; his heart proclaimeth אִוֶּלֶת 12:23; his mouth poureth it forth 15:2, and feedeth on it 15:14.
II. n.m. Orion (relation to above √ obscure);—Am 5:8 Jb 9:9; also משְׁכוֹת כ׳ תְּפַתֵּחַ 38:31 the cords of Orion wilt (canst) thou let out? (appar. some mythological allusion, v. Di Che, to giant bound in skies; cf. Hom Ὠρίωνα δοκεύει, and σθένος Ὠρίωνος); both times associated with the Pleiades; sf. כְּסִילֵיהֶם their Orions Is 13:10, Orion and other constellations of the same brilliancy.
III. n.pr.loc. in S of tribe of Judah Jos 15:30, prob. corrupt for בְּתוּל Jos 19:4; see בְּתוּאֵל.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from כסל (kâçal) (H3688) — to be foolish.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
כְּסִיל
- (b. h.)
- 1. (a denom. of כֶּסֶל q. v.) [one with thick loins, stout,] (cmp. טִפֵּשׁ) fool, foolish, overbearing. Y. Peah I, 15ᵇ bot.; Yalk. Ex. 415 (ref. to Prov. III, 26) דברים שאתה כ׳ בהם וכ׳ in things in which thou art foolish (ignorant), He will guard thy foot &c.—Pl. כְּסִילִים. Num. R. s. 16 (ref. to Prov. XXVI, 6) עשו עצמן כ׳ they (the spies) made fools of themselves. e.g. Proverbs 3:26
- 2. K’sil, the constellation Orion (v. Winer, Reallex. s. v. Nimrod). Ber. 58ᵇ
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 32 distinct written forms H3684 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| לִ/כְסִ֣יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 19:10 | 5 |
| וּ֝/כְסִילִ֗ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Proverbs 1:22 | 4 |
| כְ֭סִיל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 18:6 | 4 |
| כְּ֝סִ֗יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 10:1 | 4 |
| כְּסִ֑יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 14:7 | 4 |
| כְּסִילִ֣ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Proverbs 1:32 | 4 |
| וּ֝/כְסִ֗יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 13:16 | 3 |
| כְּ֝סִילִ֗ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Proverbs 12:23 | 3 |
| כְּ֭סִיל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 17:21 | 3 |
| כְּסִ֖יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 5:3 | 3 |
| כְּסִילִֽים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 7:5 | 3 |
| הַ/כְּסִ֑יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 6:8 | 2 |
| הַ/כְּסִיל֙ | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 2:15 | 2 |
| הַ/כְּסִילִ֖ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 5:1 | 2 |
| כְ֝סִילִ֗ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Proverbs 15:2 | 2 |
| כְסִ֑יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 28:26 | 2 |
| כְסִֽיל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 10:18 | 2 |
| כְסִילִֽים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Proverbs 26:7 | 2 |
| כְּסִ֣יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 17:10 | 2 |
| כְּסִילִ֖ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 7:4 | 2 |
| בַּ/כְּסִילִ֑ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 5:4 | 1 |
| בַּ/כְּסִילִֽים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 9:17 | 1 |
| הַ/כְּסִ֖יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 2:16 | 1 |
| הַ/כְּסִֽיל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 2:16 | 1 |
| וְ/הַ/כְּסִ֖יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 2:14 | 1 |
| וּ/כְסִ֔יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 4:13 | 1 |
| וּ/כְסִ֖יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 21:20 | 1 |
| וּ/כְסִ֥יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 15:20 | 1 |
| כְ֝סִ֗יל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 17:24 | 1 |
| כְסִילִ֣ים | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Proverbs 13:20 | 1 |
| כְּסִֽיל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 26:6 | 1 |
| לִ֭/כְסִיל | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 10:23 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3684, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Derived from this word
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- כסלון Kiçlôwn H3692 Chislon
- כסלון Kᵉçâlôwn H3693 Chesalon
- כסלות Kᵉçullôwth H3694 Chesulloth
- כסיל Kᵉçîyl H3685 Orion
- כסיל Kᵉçîyl H3686 Chesil
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 10 — not the complete family. 5 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 67 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 69 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
