Read & explore together
The unteachable fool is a lasting burden
Sirach 22:7–15 uses blunt comparisons to warn about the fool. In this wisdom passage, the writer is not telling a story but using images to show how foolishness affects teaching, grief, and daily relationships.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
Within these verses, the sayings move in order from failed teaching, to lament over a fool’s lack of understanding, to practical caution, and finally to heavy weight comparisons. The passage stays focused on the burden created by a person without understanding.
Sirach 22:7–15Main takeaway
Sirach 22:7–15 warns that foolishness resists teaching, prolongs grief, and becomes hard to bear.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Teaching a foolThe first images describe effort that does not achieve its aim. Teaching a fool is compared to gluing broken potsherds and to waking a sleeper from deep sleep.
Explanation
The first images describe effort that does not achieve its aim. Teaching a fool is compared to gluing broken potsherds and to waking a sleeper from deep sleep. Verse 8 adds a sleepy reply, “What is it?”, showing that the teaching has not been properly received.
02A sorrowful contrastThe passage next compares weeping for the dead with weeping for a fool. The dead person “has found rest”, but the fool “lacks understanding”.
Explanation
The passage next compares weeping for the dead with weeping for a fool. The dead person “has found rest”, but the fool “lacks understanding”. That is why the text speaks of the fool’s life as worse than death and says the mourning connected with him continues through his life.
03A warning about companySirach then gives direct advice. It says not to talk much with a foolish man and not to go to one who has no understanding.
Explanation
Sirach then gives direct advice. It says not to talk much with a foolish man and not to go to one who has no understanding. The reasons named in the verse are trouble, defilement, weariness, and madness. Turning away is linked with finding rest.
04Heavier than leadThe final sayings use the language of weight. Lead is heavy, and so are sand, salt, and a mass of iron.
Explanation
The final sayings use the language of weight. Lead is heavy, and so are sand, salt, and a mass of iron. Yet the text says a fool, a man without understanding, is harder to bear. The comparison stresses how oppressive such foolishness can become.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What do the two opening comparisons show about teaching a fool?
Use the images in the text itself: broken potsherds and a sleeper who only says, “What is it?”.
02How does the passage explain its strong language about grieving for a fool?
Notice the contrast between the dead, who have found rest, and the fool, who lacks understanding.
03What practical response does Sirach 22:13 recommend?
Look for both the warning to limit closeness and the promise of rest in turning away.
Read the Bible passages
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Sirach 22:7–8
7He who teaches a fool is like one who glues potsherds together, even like one who wakes a sleeper out of a deep sleep.
8He who teaches a fool is as one who teaches a man who slumbers. In the end he will say, “What is it?”
Sirach 22:11–15
11Weep for the dead, for he lacks light. Weep for a fool, for he lacks understanding. Weep more sweetly for the dead, because he has found rest, but the life of the fool is worse than death.
12Mourning for the dead lasts seven days, but for a fool and an ungodly man, it lasts all the days of his life.
13Don’t talk much with a foolish man, and don’t go to one who has no understanding. Beware of him, lest you have trouble and be defiled in his onslaught. Turn away from him, and you will find rest, and you won’t be wearied in his madness.
14What would be heavier than lead? What is its name, but “Fool”?
15Sand, salt, and a mass of iron is easier to bear than a man without understanding.
Source passages
Source: Sirach 22 ↗Translation and source notes
Some verse numbers are represented by textual notes in World English Bible Classic. The reading below follows the text printed in the main passage.