Proverbs 17:16

Of what ¹  use is money in the hand of a fool, ²  since he has no intention ³  of acquiring wisdom? ⁴ 

Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?

Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, When he has no sense?

It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a fool who has no heart for wisdom.

What's this? Fools out shopping for wisdom! They wouldn't recognize it if they saw it!

How will money in the hand of the foolish get him wisdom, seeing that he has no sense?

Why should fools have a price in hand to buy wisdom, when they have no mind to learn?

Why is there in the hand of a fool the purchase price of wisdom, Since he has no heart for it ?

Of what ¹  use is money in the hand of a fool, ²  since he has no intention ³  of acquiring wisdom? ⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “why this?” The term זֶּה (zeh) is an enclitic use of the demonstrative pronoun for emphasis: “why ever” would this happen?

² sn The sense seems to be “What good is money” since what the fool needs cannot be bought? The verse is a rhetorical question stating that money would be wasted on a fool.

³ tn Heb “there is no heart”; NASB “he has no (+ common TEV) sense”; NLT “has no heart for wisdom.”

⁴ sn W. McKane envisions a situation where the fool comes to a sage with a fee in hand, supposing that he can acquire a career as a sage, and this gives rise to the biting comment here: Why does the fool have money in his hands? To buy wisdom when he has no brains? (Proverbs [OTL], 505).