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Sunday, April 5th, 2026
Easter Sunday
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Read the Bible

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

箴言 26:5

要照著愚昧人的愚妄回答他,免得他自以為有智慧。

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Conceit;   Fool;   Pride;   Prudence;   Reproof;   Speaking;   Thompson Chain Reference - Conceit;   Humility-Pride;   The Topic Concordance - Speech/communication;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Wisdom literature;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Religion;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Greek Versions of Ot;   Proverbs, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Fool;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Canon of the Old Testament;   Conceit;   Discrepancies, Biblical;  

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
要 照 愚 昧 人 的 愚 妄 话 回 答 他 , 免 得 他 自 以 为 有 智 慧 。

Contextual Overview

4 Don't answer fools when they speak foolishly, or you will be just like them. 5 Answer fools when they speak foolishly, or they will think they are really wise.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a fool: 1 Kings 22:24-28, Jeremiah 36:17, Jeremiah 36:18, Matthew 15:1-3, Matthew 16:1-4, Matthew 21:23-27, Matthew 22:15-32, Luke 12:13-21, Luke 13:23-30, John 8:7, John 9:26-33, Titus 1:13

lest: Proverbs 26:12, Proverbs 28:11, Romans 11:25

conceit: Heb. eyes, Isaiah 5:21, Romans 12:16

Reciprocal: Proverbs 23:9 - Speak Matthew 21:24 - I also Matthew 22:22 - they marvelled Mark 11:33 - Neither Luke 20:8 - General Luke 20:26 - they could Luke 20:40 - General John 8:49 - I have not Colossians 4:6 - how

Cross-References

Genesis 12:4
So Abram left Haran as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. At this time Abram was 75 years old.
Genesis 17:23
Then Abraham gathered Ishmael, all the males born in his camp, and the slaves he had bought. So that day Abraham circumcised every man and boy in his camp as God had told him to do.
Genesis 18:19
I have chosen him so he would command his children and his descendants to live the way the Lord wants them to, to live right and be fair. Then I, the Lord , will give Abraham what I promised him."
Genesis 22:16
and said, "The Lord says, ‘Because you did not keep back your son, your only son, from me, I make you this promise by my own name:
Genesis 22:18
Through your descendants all the nations on the earth will be blessed, because you obeyed me.'"
Genesis 26:1
Now there was a time of hunger in the land, besides the time of hunger that happened during Abraham's life. So Isaac went to the town of Gerar to see Abimelech king of the Philistines.
Genesis 26:2
The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, "Don't go down to Egypt, but live in the land where I tell you to live.
Genesis 26:6
So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
Matthew 5:19
Whoever refuses to obey any command and teaches other people not to obey that command will be the least important in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys the commands and teaches other people to obey them will be great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 7:24
"Everyone who hears my words and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Answer a fool according to his folly,.... The Targum is,

"but speak with a fool in thy wisdom;''

and the Syriac version,

"yea, speak with a fool according to thy wisdom;''

which would at once remove the seeming contradiction in these words to the former, but then they are not a true version; indeed it is right, and must be the sense, that when a fool is answered, as it is sometimes necessary he should, that it be done in wisdom, and so as to expose his folly; he is to be answered and not answered according to different times, places, and circumstances, and manner of answering; he is to be answered when there is any hope of doing him good, or of doing good to others; or of preventing ill impressions being made upon others by what he has said; when the glory of God, the good of the church, and the cause of truth, require it; and when he would otherwise glory and triumph, as if his words or works were unanswerable, as follow;

lest he be wise in his own conceit; which fools are apt to be, and the rather when no answer is given them; imagining it arises from the strength of their arguments, and their nervous way of reasoning, when it is rather from a neglect and contempt of them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Two sides of a truth. To “answer a fool according to his folly” is in Proverbs 26:4 to bandy words with him, to descend to his level of coarse anger and vile abuse; in Proverbs 26:5 it is to say the right word at the right time, to expose his unwisdom and untruth to others and to himself, not by a teaching beyond his reach, but by words that he is just able to apprehend. The apparent contradiction between the two verses led some of the rabbis to question the canonical authority of this book. The Pythagoreans had maxims expressing a truth in precepts seemingly contradictory.


 
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