Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageIf you grow wise, your wisdom is its own reward; if you mock, you alone will carry that weight.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GIf you are wise, you are wise for yourself alone; if you scoff, you alone shall bear it.
KJV
King James VersionIf thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleIf you are wise, you are wise to your own advantage; but if you scoff, you alone will bear the consequences.
Footnotes
The Hebrew is deliberately terse and antithetical: wisdom and folly each bear strictly personal consequences — no one else can claim your reward or shoulder your ruin. This individualised accountability is notable within covenant literature that more commonly emphasises communal solidarity and consequence (cf. Ezek. 18). The starkness is itself a rhetorical device — forcing the reader to feel the weight of personal responsibility. FOG preserves the bare antithesis; FOG Message draws out the existential gravity of each choice to make the contrast viscerally personal for the contemporary reader.