I am going to frustrate the plans of the Egyptians and destroy their morale. They will ask their idols to help them, and they will go and consult mediums and ask the spirits of the dead for advice.

The leaders of Zoan and Memphis are fools. They were supposed to lead the nation, but they have misled it.

So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless."

I make fools of fortunetellers and frustrate the predictions of astrologers. The words of the wise I refute and show that their wisdom is foolishness.

He upsets the plans of cunning people, and traps the wise in their own schemes, so that nothing they do succeeds;

(SEE 5:12)

He takes away the wisdom of rulers and makes leaders act like fools.

The LORD frustrates the purposes of the nations; he keeps them from carrying out their plans.

This is what the LORD Almighty said about Edom: "Have the people of Edom lost their good judgment? Can their advisers no longer tell them what to do? Has all their wisdom disappeared?

One disaster will follow another, and a steady stream of bad news will pour in. You will beg the prophets to reveal what they foresee. The priests will have nothing to teach the people, and the elders will have no advice to give.

The scripture says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars."

So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skillful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!

Although their ambassadors have already arrived at the Egyptian cities of Zoan and Hanes,

They went first into the southern part of the land and came to Hebron, where the clans of Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of a race of giants called the Anakim, lived. (Hebron was founded seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

While their ancestors watched, God performed miracles in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

and performed his mighty acts and miracles in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

I will make southern Egypt desolate and set fire to the city of Zoan in the north. I will punish the capital city of Thebes.

I was as stupid as an animal; I did not understand you.

This is something a fool cannot know; someone who is stupid cannot understand:

I am more like an animal than a human being; I do not have the sense we humans should have.

At the sight of this, people feel stupid and senseless; those who make idols are disillusioned, because the gods they make are false and lifeless.

I answered, "Our leaders are stupid; they do not ask the LORD for guidance. This is why they have failed, and our people have been scattered.

and he said to them, "We will never find a better man than Joseph, a man who has God's spirit in him."

The king said to Joseph, "God has shown you all this, so it is obvious that you have greater wisdom and insight than anyone else.

Solomon was wiser than the wise men of the East or the wise men of Egypt.

He was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in words and deeds.