Ignorance: General Scriptures Concerning

For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.

Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?

They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!

But where can wisdom be found, and where does understanding dwell?

No man can know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.

From where, then, does wisdom come, and where does understanding dwell?

It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the air.

Indeed, God is great—beyond our knowledge; the number of His years is unsearchable.

Furthermore, who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the thunder roars from His pavilion?

God thunders wondrously with His voice; He does great things we cannot comprehend.

Do you know how God dispatches the clouds or makes the lightning flash?

Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?

Teach us what we should say to Him; we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness.

The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness He does not oppress.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice. …

O simple ones, learn to be shrewd; O fools, gain understanding.

She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the heights of the city, …

Even zeal is no good without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps misses the mark.

A man’s steps are from the LORD, so how can anyone understand his own way?

The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son—surely you know!

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.

For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?

For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?

All this I tested by wisdom, saying, “I resolve to be wise.” But it was beyond me.

What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it?

For there is a right time and procedure to every purpose, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him.

Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come?

I saw every work of God, and that a man is unable to comprehend the work that is done under the sun. Despite his efforts to search it out, he cannot find its meaning; even if the wise man claims to know, he is unable to comprehend.

For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps.

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.

For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.

Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.

For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see? …

No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began. …

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”

For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.