7:26a–b

But: Verse 7:26a–b contrasts with 7:24a–b. One way to indicate this contrast is to begin this verse with the word But. For example:

And (English Standard Version)

everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them: These clauses are almost identical to 7:24a–b, but the word not is added to the second part. You should translate this in a similar way.

7:26c

foolish: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as foolish refers to someone who has no sense or uses poor judgment. It means the opposite of “wise” in 7:24c.

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

simple minded
-or-
unthinking
-or-
stupid (New Jerusalem Bible)

built his house on sand: The word sand refers to “sandy ground” or “pure sand” with nothing firm underneath. The foolish man did not build his house on a strong foundation.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

built his house on top of sand/gravel
-or-
built his house in an unsafe/unstable place

-or-

did not dig deep holes for the foundation

© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.