Meaning of Simple in Proverbs 14:15
Meaning of Simple in Proverbs 14:15
The Hebrew term translated "simple" (peti) in Proverbs 14:15 denotes someone "easily led to good or evil" [4], a person whose defining characteristic is not moral depravity but susceptibility. The verse itself reads: "The simple giveth credence to everything, And the prudent attendeth to his step" [1]. This contrast between the simple and the prudent establishes the core issue: the simple person's vulnerability stems from an undeveloped capacity for discernment rather than from deliberate wickedness.
Literary Context and the Wisdom Tradition
Proverbs 14:15 appears within a collection of antithetical proverbs contrasting wise and foolish behavior. The surrounding verses address themes of household stability (14:1), speech (14:3), and the inner life (14:10). The chapter's structure juxtaposes competing paths, and verse 15 fits this pattern by setting credulity against careful deliberation. The "simple" recurs throughout Proverbs as a category distinct from both the wise and the incorrigibly foolish—a person still capable of instruction but dangerously open to deception.
The Simple as "Easily Led"
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown consistently glosses "simple" as describing one "easily led to good or evil" [4], emphasizing the term's moral neutrality at the level of disposition. The simple person is "inexperienced" [4] and "unsettled, though willing to do right" [5]. This reading positions simplicity as a stage of moral development rather than a fixed character flaw. The simple are "right-minded" but lack the wariness necessary to navigate a world of competing voices [5]. Their credulity—"believeth every word" [3]—arises not from malice but from "heedlessness" [2], an inattention to the consequences of uncritical trust.
John Gill expands this portrait: "every thing that is said to him every story that is told him, and every promise that is made him; and so is easily imposed upon, and drawn in to his hurt" [3]. The simple person's openness becomes a liability precisely because it operates without discernment. Gill contrasts this with the proper object of belief—"every word of God, or doctrine of his"—which "ought to be believed" because divine speech is "pure, free from all error and falsehood" [3]. The simple err not in the act of believing but in the indiscriminate application of trust.
Simplicity as Inherited and Cultivated
Matthew Henry introduces a darker dimension, noting that "the simple, who love simplicity, get nothing by it; they inherit folly" [6]. Henry reads this inheritance both genealogically and dispositionally: "This corruption of nature is derived from our first parents," an "hereditary disease" [6]. Yet he also observes that the simple "are as fond of it as a man of his inheritance, hold it as fast, and are as loth to part with it" [6]. Simplicity thus functions as both a received condition and a chosen posture. The simple cling to their naïveté, valuing what is "really foolish" [6] and resisting the instruction that might deliver them.
The Prudent Alternative
The second half of the verse offers the corrective: "the prudent attendeth to his step" [1]. Where the simple give credence indiscriminately, the prudent exercise "wariness by which to escape evil and find good" [4]. This prudence involves "device" and "discretion" [4]—qualities that, though capable of misuse, here denote the careful evaluation of claims and circumstances. The prudent person does not reject belief but subjects it to scrutiny, testing words against experience and wisdom.
Function in the Wisdom Corpus
Proverbs addresses the simple repeatedly (1:4, 1:22, 9:15), treating them as the primary audience for wisdom instruction. The book's opening declares its purpose: to give "subtilty" and "discretion" to the simple and the young [4]. This pedagogical focus assumes that simplicity is a remediable condition. The simple can become prudent through discipline and instruction, but only if they abandon their "love" of simplicity [7] and submit to correction. The alternative—persisting in credulity—leads to folly and its attendant consequences.
Sources
- Proverbs “Proverbs 14:15 (YLT) — The simple giveth credence to everything, And the prudent attendeth to his step.”
- Proverbs (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Proverbs 14:15: The simple . . . word--He is credulous, not from love, but heedlessness (Pro 13:16).”
- Proverbs (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Proverbs 14:15: The simple believeth every word,.... Every thing that is said to him every story that is told him, and every promise that is made him; and so is easily imposed upon, and drawn in to his hurt: every word of God, or doctrine of his, ought to be believed; because whatever he says is true, he cannot lie; every word of his is pure, free from all error and falsehood; it is a tried word, and found to bear a faithful testimony, and, if we receive the witness of then, the witness of God is greater; besides, his word is profitable for instruction, and for the increase of pea”
- Proverbs (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Proverbs 1:4: simple--one easily led to good or evil; so the parallel. young man--one inexperienced. subtilty--or prudence (Pro 3:21; Pro 5:21). discretion--literally, "device," both qualities, either good or bad, according to their use. Here good, as they imply wariness by which to escape evil and find good.”
- Proverbs (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Proverbs 9:15: to allure those who are right-minded, and who are addressed as in Pro 9:4, as simple--that is, easily led (Pro 1:4) and unsettled, though willing to do right.”
- Proverbs (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Proverbs 14:18: Note, 1. Sin is the shame of sinners: The simple, who love simplicity, get nothing by it; they inherit folly. They have it by inheritance, so some. This corruption of nature is derived from our first parents, and all the calamities that attend it we have by kind; it was the inheritance they transmitted to their degenerate race, an hereditary disease. They are as fond of it as a man of his inheritance, hold it as fast, and are as loth to part with it. What they value themselves upon is really foolish; and what will be the issue of their simplicity but folly? The”
- Proverbs (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Proverbs 1:22: simple ones--(Compare Pro 1:4). simplicity--implying ignorance. scorners-- (Psa 1:1) --who despise, as well as reject, truth. fools--Though a different word is used from that of Pro 1:7, yet it is of the same meaning.”