98 Bible Verses about Intelligence

Proverbs 1:7 ESV / 164 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:1-33 ESV / 150 helpful votes

The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, ...

Proverbs 2:6 ESV / 142 helpful votes

For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

2 Peter 1:5 ESV / 139 helpful votes

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,

Daniel 5:14 ESV / 74 helpful votes

I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.

Daniel 1:17 ESV / 68 helpful votes

As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

James 1:5 ESV / 66 helpful votes

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Philippians 1:9-11 ESV / 64 helpful votes

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Job 12:3 ESV / 54 helpful votes

But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

Proverbs 18:15 ESV / 44 helpful votes

An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

1 Kings 10:24 ESV / 38 helpful votes

And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.

Colossians 3:23 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Isaiah 29:12 ESV / 34 helpful votes

And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

Proverbs 10:19 ESV / 34 helpful votes

When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

Romans 12:6-8 ESV / 33 helpful votes

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 31 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Isaiah 29:14 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

Colossians 3:2 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

1 Corinthians 1:19 ESV / 25 helpful votes

For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Proverbs 9:10 ESV / 23 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

James 3:17 ESV / 22 helpful votes

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

1 Corinthians 2:16 ESV / 21 helpful votes

“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:9 ESV / 21 helpful votes

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

Proverbs 4:23 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 19 helpful votes

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Romans 8:7 ESV / 19 helpful votes

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.

Psalm 111:10 ESV / 19 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

Daniel 12:4 ESV / 18 helpful votes

But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”

Proverbs 3:13 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding,

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Daniel 1:4 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

2 Chronicles 2:12 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Hiram also said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, who has discretion and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.

Genesis 1:1-31 ESV / 15 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ...

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV / 14 helpful votes

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 14 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

Job 28:28 ESV / 14 helpful votes

And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

Colossians 2:8 ESV / 13 helpful votes

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:20-21 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

Romans 8:28 ESV / 13 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 1:20 ESV / 13 helpful votes

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

James 3:13 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

Ephesians 1:3 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 12 helpful votes

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Colossians 2:3 ESV / 11 helpful votes

In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 11 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Mark 12:30 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Proverbs 24:1 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them,

James 2:19 ESV / 10 helpful votes

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

Colossians 2:2-3 ESV / 10 helpful votes

That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Proverbs 15:33 ESV / 10 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

Ephesians 4:17 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

1 Corinthians 1:25 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

John 4:24 ESV / 9 helpful votes

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Acts 7:22 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

Zechariah 1:1-2 ESV / 8 helpful votes

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, “The Lord was very angry with your fathers.

Daniel 11:30 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against the holy covenant. He shall turn back and pay attention to those who forsake the holy covenant.

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Proverbs 29:11 ESV / 8 helpful votes

A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

Proverbs 4:2 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.

Proverbs 1:5 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,

1 Kings 3:12 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.

Galatians 5:1-26 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. ...

1 Corinthians 2:6 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

Romans 15:13 ESV / 7 helpful votes

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

John 5:39-40 ESV / 7 helpful votes

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

Luke 10:27 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Luke 1:37 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Jeremiah 33:1-26 ESV / 7 helpful votes

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard: “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense against the siege mounds and against the sword: They are coming in to fight against the Chaldeans and to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I shall strike down in my anger and my wrath, for I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil. ...

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV / 7 helpful votes

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiastes 2:26 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Proverbs 3:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

2 Timothy 2:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

Ephesians 4:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Romans 8:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

John 17:25-26 ESV / 6 helpful votes

O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

John 3:16-17 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Ecclesiastes 7:11-12 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

Proverbs 30:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man.

Proverbs 19:8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Whoever gets sense loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will discover good.

Proverbs 9:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

Psalm 8:1-9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. ...

Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ...

Romans 15:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Romans 12:12 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Proverbs 1:26 ESV / 5 helpful votes

I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you,

Numbers 13:1-33 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; ...

Exodus 35:31-32 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze,

Colossians 2:2-4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

1 Corinthians 1:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1 Corinthians 1:18-21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

John 8:21-30 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. ...

Matthew 10:28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Daniel 1:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility,

Colossians 2:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ,

Joshua 2:1-21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” ...

Proverbs 9:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.

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